A Story of Friends
by Merial Spaise Archer
Summary: Three friends find themselves magically transported into a mysterious world that turns out to be only one of many. They have to find their way home but the temptation of darkness, light and the nothing in between may be too much for them.
1. Chapter 1

Author's First Note; So when I first published this story it was two years ago. Called The Shadows vs. The Light. I have become a slightly better writer since then so if you want to make fun of my eighth grade work go read it. This time I'm adding a character and another part to the prophecy. And hopefully a new twist on things that will entertain you and as always my sarcasm will be present.

I looked over my shoulder and flipped on my turn signal button before I merged into the right lane and onto my exit. The snow was coming down pretty hard and I remembered what my mom told me and slowed down my car. I was so nervous and excited about getting to my friend's house.

This weekend would be the last weekend Meggan, Wanessa, and I would spend together. Wanessa was moving south and we were having a party between the three of us like it used to be in the beginning. Sitting inside for the entire weekend playing Kingdom Hearts, eating seriously unhealthy food, jamming to loud music, and acting retarded at the same time.

I was about five minutes from Meg's house and I couldn't help but going a few miles over the speed limit. I pulled into the driveway and yanked my bag out of the seat next to me and slammed my truck door shut. Snow blew into my face as I walked up to the front door. I kicked the snow off my chucks and walked through the door.

"LADIES I'M HOME!" I called into the house. Meg appeared at the top of the steps wrapped in a towel and her hair dripping.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU KNOCK!" She yelled, "I COULD HAVE BEEN NAKED!" I just laughed at her and she laughed. "My mom's at work all night so we have the place to ourselves."

"Yes!" I dropped my bag at the foot of the stairs and walked into the living room. Wanessa was sitting in front of the computer checking her blog. Her long brown hair was slightly curly today and she wore a maroon and gold football shirt from her and Meg's school. "NESSA!" I hugged her and gave her a giant smooch on the cheek.

"Rachel!" She squealed back. I laughed and let her go. Her brown eyes were lit up and happy and I smiled at her.

"Are we all set up?" I asked. She nodded.

"Meg's just got to get dressed and we can begin our amazing laziness," She laughed. I plopped down on the couch and only a few minutes later Meg clomped down the stairs. Her short brown hair was curling under her ears. She was wearing a green tank top and green and pink pajama pants.

"What are you doing in clothes?" She asked.

"I'm not sure," I said, getting up and walking over to my bag, "But if you set up the game I'll go change." She nodded and bent over to turn on the play station. I put on my green plaid pants and black t-shirt and ran back into the living room where the opening lines of Utada Hikaru's ISimple and Clean/I were just coming on. Meg held the controller.

"I called Destiny Islands," She informed me.

"Traverse Town!" Nessa chimed in.

"Ewwe I hate Wonderland," I complained. "Its so…wondrous." They just laughed at me and Meggan began the tutorial.

An hour later I made a trip to the kitchen to get a drink. Meg and Nessa were working together to defeat the Gecko in Deep Jungle. I came back in with my drink and sat down behind them.

"What are you drinking?" Meg asked.

"Water." She reached back her hand to get it from me.

"No way!" I yanked the glass back. A few droplets hit the carpet.

"Give it!" She jumped on me to get the water, laughing we both tumbled around until we bumped into Nessa.

"Hey, I'm trying to kill a Gecko here!" She complained, a smile playing on the edges of her mouth. Meg grabbed the glass.

"GOT IT!" She wretched it out of my hands and water splashed from the glass and landed on the play station. She drank what was left of the water and laughed as I pouted. Suddenly the screen on the game and Nessa froze up.

"Nessa?" I asked, putting my hands on her shoulders. She didn't move or answer.

"Wanessa?" Meg asked, she leaned forwards and looked at her face. She tried waving her hand in her face but she didn't even flinch. "What the hell?" I grabbed Meg's hand.

"Maybe she had a seizure!" We both stared at each other and started to laugh. "Nessa, snap out of it. Very funny." But she still didn't move. I still had a hand on her shoulder and I was holding Meg's hand. A loud snap made both of us jump.

A bright blue spark emitted from the playstation and made the room glow an eerie electrical tint. I couldn't move, but I could hear Meg yelling in the distance, then she was silent. The blue changed to green and there were numbers everywhere. Then suddenly it was black.

"Shit."


	2. Chapter 2

"Sh-Shit" "Shit" Shit" it echoed around me. In the pitch black I couldn't see anything but I could hear Meg cursing to herself.

"Meg calm down!" Wanessa's commanding voice came from right next to me. I let out a yelp of surprise and accidentally smacked her arm. She smacked me back.

"Does anyone else get the feeling their falling?" I asked, rubbing my stinging arm. I got a murmur of a response from Nessa and another swear from Meg. "Because that light down there seems to be coming closer."

"Maybe we died." Nessa said in wonderment.

"Well death is boring," Meg complained. And we floated downward for a really long time.

"That thing kind of looks like Belle." I looked around and now noticed I could see the outlines of my two friends. A few more minutes passed and we could make out Belle in her beautiful yellow dress on tinted glass. There were three pedestals spread across the circumference of the circle.

I thought we were coming up on the glass really fast, but when my feet touched the surface I felt weightless. I looked around and the pedestals were just plain silver. There was a blue Mickey Emblem on each one.

"Okay…" Nessa said, thinking logically, "who hit me on the head?" Meg and I looked at each other and then back at her. "You were fighting over the water now someone has to have accidentally knocked me in the head and now I'm dreaming."

"Well that would make sense," I started off quietly, "IF WE WEREN'T HERE TOO!" I knocked her in the head lightly. She sighed and we continued to discuss it.

"Where the hell are we?" Meg was standing on the edge of the class circle looking down. She stepped back and looked at the two of us.

"There has always been a battle between darkness and light." We all jumped, searching for the source of the deep voice that suddenly pierced the silence. It was a calming voice, deep and soothing. "There have always been three warriors fighting alongside those who already exist." Three chiming noises echoed into the blackness surrounding us. Above the pedestals a sword, a shield, and a magic staff appeared. "Choose your weapons wisely. For not only do they decide your fate, but they are also a part of you."

We were all silent for a moment, each of us looking at the weapons. Immediately Meggan ran toward the staff and tried to pull it out of the air. Her hand would pass just below it. Then she jumped up and her fingers clamped around it.

"Wait! Meg!" Her fingers slipped through the staff once more and she landed on the glass. Nessa and I ran up to her. "The voice said to choose wisely. You just can't run up and pick something at random!"

"But this wasn't at random!" She complained. "I feel something from this." We looked at her skeptically. "Go and stand between the other two!" She said and returned to her jumping.

Standing in between the sword and the shield with Nessa was interesting. In a small way I felt a tug towards the shield, but the sword was tugging at my heart with most of its force. "Do you feel that?" I whispered. Nessa nodded. I started walking towards the sword and to my surprise she was headed towards the shield. With the same birthday I thought we would feel a tug towards the same one.

I reached the sword and stood underneath it. The pedestal reached up to my hips and I put both hands on it to climb on top. I reached up and grasped the golden hilt of the sword. It felt good in my hand and immediately the full weight of it was released on me, but I could easily hold it.

I turned to see Meggan finally get a grasp on the magic staff. The top glowed bright blue and I could see her face glowing with power. Wanessa was strapping the shield to her wrist. It fit easily over her arm and rested lightly on it. I jumped down and walked to the center of Belle's dress and waited for them.

The ground started to shake and from the edges of the glass a loud cracking sound erupted from the darkness. The glass was shattering. Along Belle's head a glass stairwell appeared.

"RUN!" I called to them; they were closer to the exit than I and they reached it before I did. I ran as fast as I could to the stairs but I could feel with every step the weakening glass cracking even more.

"RACHEL RUN FASTER!" Meggan yelled. I put my head down and pumped my legs harder, my sword moving in a blur with my arms. I jumped onto the stairs at the last second; my one foot catching into the black abyss below, but I pulled it onto the stairs.

"Good job!" Nessa patted me on the back. I nodded and half smiled at her.

"So…" I said, "we go up the stairs?" Another crack in the glass answered us.

"I would say yes," Meg took off running up them, followed closely by Nessa and myself.

At the top of the stairs there was a huge white door. We walked tentatively towards it. My heart was thundering in my chest but I didn't want to turn back yet. Meggan grabbed the handle and pulled it open. A black fog spilled out and immediately spread around us. It curled up around my head and an enticing aroma filled my nose. I leaned into is foggy caress and breathed it in. I heard Meggan and Wanessa choking, but I couldn't seem to clear my head.

Before I opened my eyes I saw the image of silver hair moving through a dark hallway and shadows closing in behind the person. Then a disgusting face made of shadows and blood crossed my vision and I opened my eyes.

"Get away from the door!" I called. Meg and Wanessa jumped back immediately. I stood with my sword ready to strike. I squinted into the shadows, waiting for it to appear.

A huge shadow, approximately the size of a 20-story building squeezed through the door. Its huge head was right in my face and the breeze blew back my hair. I lifted my sword up and slashed it across the forehead. If this had been a video game the electric guitar would have come in already a band would have began slamming on their instruments. The shadow screamed and wretched the rest of its body through the door and stood up.

Throwing back its head it shot glowing balls of purple and black darkness from the hole in its stomach and they shot directly at the three of us. Wanessa held up her shield and knocked them back at it. Meggan dodged the magic and started to close her eyes and focus on a power that I couldn't see. I jumped between the moving legs and sliced through the particles of darkness. I cut deep into the shadows gooey center and kept going, though the screams and roars that escaped its lips were enough to make anyone curl up in a ball.

There was a loud moan and someone was pulling on my shirt, dragging me away from the underside of the shadow. It was coming down. I fell back on the person just as it crashed to the ground. It's fist gathering darkness from the ground.

"Thanks Meg!" I called and jumped back into the battle. My new skill was amazing, the power flowing through my sword filled me with strength. I lunged forward and cut into the shadow's hand. Wanessa and Meggan were right next to me. Wanessa knocking away and beating the smaller shadows in the head with her shield. Meggan was somehow shooting flames and ice into the mixture, making my left arm burn and freeze. I let out a howl and sliced through the hand and suddenly the world moved in slow motion.

The shadows moved around us like water, every droplet of it visible. The motionless world only lasted a few seconds. The monster screamed and the stillness shattered. The darkness dissolved and we were left standing on a rainbow of glass in front of the white door.

"I think its safe to go through now," Meg said. She propped the staff on her shoulder.

"That was a heartless," Wanessa said, looking dazed. I turned around and looked at her, realizing what she just said. "You guys," She whispered, being extremely serious, "I think we're in Kingdom Hearts."


	3. Chapter 3

"What do you mean, 'we're in Kingdom Hearts,'?" I asked. Wanessa just looked at us for a minute before answering. A light shone up through the colored glass, sending shafts of colored light into the darkness around us. The white door stood open and we couldn't see through to the other side.

"What I mean is, there's no other explanation for it," she said, sounding as calm and collected as normal, "I've already decided this is not a hallucination or dream, you don't feel pain in those. I'm bleeding, Meg's rubbing her arm, and Rachel your hands are blistering badly."

"This is impossible," Meg muttered.

"This is a hole in the space time continuum," Nessa said.

"This is awesome!" I exclaimed. Nessa looked at me.

"So what's the plan?" She asked. Meg looked at me curiously.

"We go through the door."

[Somewhere in a dark castle]

"There's been a disturbance in the dark precept," A cold, elderly, woman's voice said. The glow of the table beneath her lit up her face from below. The featured sharp lines made her have a severe expression.

The figures of a boy, a duck, and a tall dog walking, faded slowly from the table surface. The walking images were replaced with three girls standing together before a door of light. Their mouths were moving quickly, like they were arguing.

"Who are they?" A man with dark curly hair and a hook for a hand asked.

"They're looking scrumptious!" said another. He was just a bag and licked his "lips" with hunger.

"You insufferable bag of bugs!" A very tall man with a small curling bear, dressed in desert robes of red and black, snapped. The snake headed staff in his hand glowed red, "You cannot possibly think about eating them."

"You desert beetle!" The bag-man yelled, "I'll-"

"Enough!" The woman interjected. Her piercing gaze made them sit back in their seats, the other seated around the table let out a small chuckle. "The only ones to enter that realm are the key bearers. These girls hold no key, and yet they have arrived. Therefore they must hold the key to something."

"And what, Maleficent, do you think that key is to?" A deep voice said from in the darkness. The room was filled with silence. Maleficent looked ahead to the commanding voice.

"I do not know," She admitted, anger burning in her eyes. The man stepped forward, the light from the table captured the tint of his dark skin and long silver hair. His eyes lit up evilly.

"I wonder why you are all still sitting here," he said quietly, his eyes never leaving the old witch, "The key bearer could be nearing your worlds and preparations must be made."

"What of the girls?" The pirate asked.

"What of them?"

"Are they a threat to us? Should we stop them as we are stopping the key bearer?" the pirate inquired.

"Let them run about the worlds, they have a lot to learn before any actions can be made against them," The man looked at each man around the table, "You're dismissed." Each one got up and walked out of the room.

"Who are they Ansem?" Maleficent asked.

"Their names I do not know, but their purpose is clear. There are three of them and three realms. They will be the connectors of the realms," He answered. She was unsatisfied, he could tell, but she said nothing else. He turned to leave but when he reached the doorway he stopped. "What of the boy Riku? What are your plans for him?" Ansem asked.

"He will help us enter Kingdom Hearts," Maleficent informed him, her voice full of creepy happiness, "He's the perfect way to gather the princesses' hearts and destroying his friend Sora." Ansem nodded and left the room. He didn't voice his plans and decided to Maleficent think herself powerful.

"Riku!" Maleficent yelled. A boy of 15 emerged from the darkness. He looked at her with piercing green eyes. "Get to Agrabah and help Jafar capture the princess. I will be along shortly to assist him in a defense against Sora and his friends. Just make sure he, or you, brings the girl back here." Riku nodded and started to walk out of the room.

He'd caught the ending of Maleficent and Ansem's conversation. He'd also seen the girls on the table and wondered what Ansem meant by they represented each of the three realms. He only knew of two and wondered who would represent his realm.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: So pretty much I've just been typing and I'll probably go back and change a few things later on. But fans let me tell you I love I am Legend. Its one of the greatest movies I've seen since Transformers. It's really an emotional tug on you like the movie cast away. I suggest going to see it. Even if you get scared easily go see it. Anyway back to the story.

It was incredibly hot. The sun beat down on us from seemingly every direction. The sand beneath our feet was burning through our socked feet.

"Desert plus pajamas plus no shoes equals crap," Nessa pointed out as we made our way to what looked like a city.

"No shit," Meg replied, her bad attitude building up.

"Once we get to that city we'll try and get some shoes," I said, ignoring the pain in my feet. "Anyway at least we'll all get a nice tan."

"I'll just burn," Meg said, looking down at her bare shoulders. Nessa and I shrugged and we kept walking across the desert. "And besides, we need munny."

"All we have to do is defeat some heartless and break open some pots and there'll be munny inside," Nessa pointed out, trying to make her feel better. I just kept my mouth shut. Meg always got grumpy and Nessa always made her feel better. It was a vicious cycle but it was our lives. Meg just sighed and kept quiet for a while.

We finally reached the gate of Agrabah. The city looked exactly like it did in the cartoons and exactly like that of the game. There were peddler stands everywhere, and the walls were high and made of a rough but grainy stone. As we walked along the pathways we heard voices coming closer to us. One was an older woman's and the other was a man.

"Jafar and Maleficent!" I whispered. We all looked for hiding places. Meggan lunged behind a peddler's stand, Wanessa followed and as I waited for them to get settled and make room Maleficent and Jafar walked into the bazaar.

"Is the city secure?" Maleficent asked. Jafar nodded.

"Though that princess Jasmine has proved difficult to find," I saw something move from across our peddler's stand. I wanted to look but forced myself to hold still and pushed myself against the side of the stand. There were footsteps on the top of our stand, and then someone landed directly in front of us.

He had on blue pants and a yellow shirt with black crisscrossing across it. His silver hair reflected the sun so I couldn't see his face. I instinctively sucked in my breath and he looked down at me, squinting.

"Did you find her?" Maleficent asked. He shook his head, still looking at me. I heard Wanessa holding Meggan back from leaping out and protecting me.

"What are you looking at boy?" Jafar asked, moving forward. He continued to look at me and suddenly his dragon wing sword was at my throat.

"Stand up slowly," He said. I just looked up at him. I felt the power of my blade as it rested invisible at the tips of my fingers. A small group of bandit heartless made a half circle behind me to block my escape. Maleficent and Jafar were working on coming around to our side of the stand. I wondered if anyone else could hear Meg struggling to get away from Nessa. I closed my eyes and stood up. "Put down your weapon."

"I don't have one." I lied; making sure the powerful urge on my fingers was invisible. He looked at me expectantly; his eyes searching me for any sign of an invisible weapon.

"What is it?" Jafar asked.

"Riku?" Maleficent grabbed his attention. He turned to answer them and I took advantage of the situation. I leapt backwards and solidified my sword. I sliced through two of the heartless in one blow and the hearts they'd collected floated towards the sun.

"HEY!" the boy, Riku, called after me. Why was that name familiar? I shook my head and kept running towards the exit, leading them away from my friends. I heard Riku chasing after me and when I peaked over my shoulder before I jumped into a doorway leading into another part of Agrabah I saw a huge glob of darkness flying my direction. It reached the doorway before me and I accidentally leaped into the portal. Riku flew in after me.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: .com/watch?v=euoR8NVfS14 go watch that.

Wanessa held her hand over my mouth and forced me to hold still until Maleficent, Jafar, and the heartless were gone. When she finally let go of me I leapt up.

"RACHEL!" I screamed. Looking around the bazaar. "She's gone Wanessa! She's gone! That stupid Riku tricked her into that portal and now she's gone with him and Maleficent." Wanessa came up behind me and gave me a hug.

"We'll find her, don't worry. We have to," She muttered into my hair, though I could feel her uncertainty. "Okay breathe." I tried to relax. "We've got to find Sora, Donald, and Goofy."

"Why?"

"Remember, there's always dark to light," She explained. I looked at her. My feet hurt, my head heart, and my throat hurt from screaming. I wanted to sit in the shade somewhere and relax. "Look I was reading the strategy guide and it says that they have a boss fight that goes through the whole city. I bet if we find a good lookout spot we'll see them fighting and then somehow follow them."

"Okay," I said. We started walking towards the large gateway leading further into the city. Black shadows were rising up from the ground; their yellow eyes were made dull by the sun. "Oh, heartless." I pulled my magical staff from the air and whacked at the first one's head. The Bandit jumped backwards and flung his sword at us. Wanessa jumped in front of me with her shield, which sparked white with the impact. The heartless dissolved and was replaced with a pile of munny and green health balls.

"GET THE BALLS!" I yelled, noticing another heartless rising up from the ground to attack us. Wanessa looked at me.

"At least we'll get some practice in!" She said, laughing. We attacked the heartless and gathered as much munny as possible. We felt stronger and weren't tired at all when we were done.

An hour or so passed and our hiding place was getting hot. Wanessa had pulled back her long hair with the only hair tie and I continued to brush my short hair out of my face.

"Where are they?" I complained. I leaned back against the slightly cool rock as Wanessa leaned out over the edge to look.

"OVER THERE!" She shouted. Just as she did, a loud crashing sound came from the gate to the palace. A giant blue centipede with pots for the middle was moving throughout the city. Sora was attacking the middle, trying to get it to shorten up. Goofy covered the tail and Donald avoided the dark laced feelers on its head. We jumped down just in time to be attacked by the feelers.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Sora yelled. He'd smashed all the pots and joined Donald up front. I dodged a feeler but Wanessa didn't. She was throne into a wall. I ran towards her and held up my staff.

"CURE!" A green light sparked from the end and surrounded her. I felt lightly drained but when she was standing I leapt back into the battle and started beating the centipede in the head and blasting fire and ice at it. Wanessa jumped in and helped Sora attack the pots gathering again in the middle.

"Who are you?" Sora asked, breaking a pot directly in half, the keyblade sparking as he did.

"Nessa!" She answered.

"Nessa?" Sora stopped. His paused caused him to be kicked by a leg on one of the pots. "Where are you from?" She couldn't answer. "What about you?" He yelled up to me.

"Meggan!" I shouted back while stabbing at the eye and burning it with fire at the same time. Then suddenly the centipede snapped and disappeared into a black fog. I ran up behind Nessa and whispered in her ear, "Are they supposed to know we're following them?" I asked. Nessa shrugged.

"I can't see how it'll hurt. They may need our help," she whispered back. "And besides we can use them to find Rachel, they're looking for that Riku guy, right?" I nodded. We walked back over to them and they had decided to go to the desert. We looked at our feet and moaned.

"Good luck guys," I said, looking around for a shoe shop anywhere. "We might come out that way eventually." They nodded and started to leave, Aladdin and Genii were traveling with them now. "Okay, shoes."

Just then a very small man with a cart ran past. "EXCUSE ME!" Nessa called after him. He stopped and turned. "Do you know where we can get shoes?" A huge smile broke out on his face and he whipped the cover off of his cart. A bunch of shining gold things sprang up. Rugs and clothing, and a rack of shoes rolled out of the side.

"Whoa," I said. Taking a step closer.

"Shoes, clothes, anklets, wristbands, rings, protective bandannas, potions, and anything you could think of in this cart. Search away and come to me when you're done shopping," He said and pulled out a book and sat on a bench placed at the front of the cart.

Wanessa and I smiled at each other and started to rummage through his cart. We found anti-darkness bandannas, comfortable shoes, and we stocked up on potions just in case. When we were done the peddler jumped down and examined our pickings.

"These are the most comfortable and versatile shoes I've ever invested in," He bragged.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Versatile, meaning they chan-"

"I KNOW WHAT IT MEANS!"

"She means, what makes them versatile," Wanessa explained.

"Oh I see. They change depending on the type of conditions you're in," He explained, "For example, if you were in the desert they would become non-slip and make it easy for you to move quickly across the dunes. Or if you were somewhere wet they would become water proof immediately to protect your feet."

"Awesome." We paid for the items and loaded up with them. Splitting the potions between us. I tied the bandanna around my head and held back my hair and Wanessa looped hers through the top of her pants. "This is so much better," I sighed, dunking my head into a basin of water before we went out in the desert. Within a few minutes, it had already evaporated off my face.

The Cave of Wonders was already open and we walked cautiously into the mouth of the lion. Inside there were several heartless left over from Sora's original raid of the place. We destroyed them and traveled down further into the cave. We heard a malicious laughter coming from one of the doors and we ran over to it and peaked in.

Maleficent and Riku stood at the top of a large block, which hung over a giant hole in the ground.

"Wait until they are done fighting and return with the two girls," Maleficent instructed.

"Aren't you going to help him?" Riku asked, looking into the hole.

"No. If he can be so easily defeated he does not deserve my help," She spun her cape and stepped through the portal into the darkness. Riku sighed and sat down next to a struggling figure. I squinted my eyes to look closer.

"RACHEL!" I screamed, getting away from Wanessa's arms long enough to run to the edge of our block. Riku looked up and tried to figure out who we are. Rachel's head moved in our direction but he pushed his hand on her head and she fell still. Then he raised his sword and put a protective barrier in our doorway. "YOU ASS HOLE GIVE HER BACK RIGHT NOW!" Wanessa stopped me from running into the barrier but as I blasted spells at it, but I was distracted by another girl who was walking onto a block. She had on a green outfit with jet-black hair.

I watched as Riku silently jumped from his block to hers and as she leaned over the edge he touched the back of her head and with a little scream she fell forward, but he caught her before she fell over the side of the cliff. Without so much as a grunt he picked her up and jumped back over to the ledge with Rachel on it. He stepped through the portal carrying Jasmine and after minute came back for Rachel.

"Let's go!" Wanessa grabbed my arm and pulled me away. "If we find the gummy ship we can climb aboard and travel with them." I nodded and we both ran quickly back to Agrabah, searching along the way for their gummy ship. Halfway through the desert we found it and climbed aboard.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: so this is a flashback to Rachel's fight with Riku. Incase anyone is confused or worried that they missed something. Just go back to chapter 4 if you forgot.

"AHH!" I jumped forward and spun around, looking around me. I was surrounded by sand stonewalls, like the rest of Agrabah, but there were no doorways or windows for me to leap out of. I backed away from the portal slowly and when I saw the silver hair of that boy Riku come through the darkness I leapt forward with my sword out.

He raised his dragon wing blade just before the sharp steel of mine smashed into his head. I gritted my teeth as the vibration of our two swords clashing shook my arms. His bright green eyes stared into mine and threw me backwards. I stumbled backwards and he raced forward before I could regain my balance. I twisted in the air and he only caught my leg with the edge of his sword. I crashed to the ground.

"OWW! That hurt!" I yelled at him, he looked at me with wide eyes and I lifted up my leg. "I think you fucking broke it!" I screamed. He stepped closer to me and was about to lean over me when I jumped up and knocked his sword out of his hand. He fell back and I held my blade to his neck.

"That's enough," A woman's voice from behind me said. I felt my muscles stiffen and I couldn't move.

"LET ME GO!" I yelled, feeling the tension in my muscles grow. I tried to move but my body wouldn't listen.

"Not until you relax," She said, walking around me to get Riku's sword. She bent down to pick it up. Her long cloak kicked up dust as she walked towards him. "Stand up, Riku." He moved slowly out from underneath my unmoving blade. I gritted my teeth and sort of growled at him. I could feel the sweat dripping down my back as the sun beat down on us. How Maleficent's complexion was completely clear I had no idea. Riku was sweating slightly and he just smirked at me as he stood up.

"I would have had you if she hadn't come along," I muttered bitterly. His face dropped but Maleficent handed him his sword before he could reply.

"The boy with the keyblade is reaching Jafar's lair in the desert. Soon they'll fight and I need you there to get the Princess whatever the outcome of the battle," Maleficent explained to him.

"What about her?" Riku asked, indicating me. "Are you going to take her to Hollow Bastion?"

"I could always use another servant, and she's got spirit, that's for sure," Maleficent said, she was eyeing me. "I'll knock her out and it'll make travel easier." She put her hand on my forehead and I could feel the coolness leave her body and enter me. My eyes drooped heavily, "I'll see you at Hollow Bastion, don't disappoint me like that fool in the desert." And everything went black.


	7. Chapter 7

Wanessa and I were safely stowed away in the cleaning cupboard on the ship. When we first boarded we noticed the disastrous mess everywhere and thought this would be the best place to hide, it seemed nobody went in there. When Sora, Donald, and Goofy climbed aboard Sora was talking about some girl named Jasmine and where she could have possibly gone.

"I hope we find her," Goofy said.

"Yeah," Sora agreed, "Aladdin is really worried about her."

"I just wonder where she got to," Donald said out loud. I almost jumped out of the closet to tell them that Riku was the one taking the girls. "We left her where it was safe." There were murmurs of agreement and after a few moments the ship rumbled to life.

For a few hours we sat in the darkness of the closet and I could feel the smell of bleach soak into my clothes. Great, I was going to smell like a cleaning cupboard. Nessa and I talked about as much as we could remember from the strategy guide and what was going to happen.

"But who knows what's going to happen?" Nessa freaked, "Now that we're in the story we could possibly change everything!" I was just silent for once; I looked around and tried to make out shapes in the dark room. "For all we know we could be stuck here forever and now that Rachel's gone we'll never find her again."

We passed the time with Nessa fretting to herself quietly and me panicking, but hiding it because I didn't want to freak her out anymore than what she already was. While we sat in the dark Sora ran past the closet at least a hundred times. Each time he was looking for something or needed information on how to fight the heartless. Donald and Goofy mostly stayed in the cockpit, directing where we went.

"I NEED A RAG!" Sora yelled after three hours of nothing. He ran past the closet and the mops shook on the wall and one fell onto the floor.

"Try the cleaning closet!" Donald said loudly. Nessa and I looked at each other as best we could in the dark and huddled back further. "What's that Goofy?" Sora's hand was on the door handle and he had it half open.

"SORA!" Goofy yelled.

"WHAT?" He turned to face the cockpit. We could see his face clearly in the hallway light. His spiky brown hair was sticking up as bad as ever and he was only three feet away from us.

"We're coming up on Traverse Town, get ready to open the door." Goofy called back. Sora left the door hanging open and ran away. I let the breath I didn't know I was holding out. I heard Nessa do the same. The ship landed smoothly and the only problem was when the first of the landing gear hit the pad and the entire ship tilted forward.

"SHIT!" I was flung forward and I crashed into the wall directly in front of the doorway. Donald looked over just as I did and his mouth dropped open.

"WHAA?" He yelled. The other two landing legs hit the ground and I was thrown backwards onto my butt. He ran over to me with his staff out and aimed at me. "What are you doing on our ship?"

"We needed a ride?" I smiled and held up my hands as a way of showing I didn't have my weapon…out. Nessa poked her head out of the closet.

"We're so sorry! I told her we shouldn't have just climbed aboard without asking," She started to apologize. Goofy had turned off the ship and Sora got distracted from his door duty and they walked up behind Donald. "But our friend Rachel disappeared after she was tricked into a portal by Maleficent and we have to find her so we can all figure out a way to get home!" Donald was tapping his foot, Goofy was looking sympathetic, and Sora looked at us like he was looking into a mirror. Which I realized, maybe he was.

"Well," Donald started.

"We're in Traverse Town to stock up and then we're off to find Riku and Kairi. And since you already seem to know about the worlds I guess it can't hurt to take you along with us so you can search for your friend Rachel," Sora interrupted. Donald looked at him and sighed, Goofy laughed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

While Sora, Donald, and Goofy got off the ship and stocked up on supplies Nessa and I ran into District two and three to practice our fighting. While we were busy taking down heartless we didn't notice the man standing on one of the rooftops looking down on us. While Nessa plowed through the heartless with sparks of light shooting off her shield every time and they zoned into the heartless surrounding us.

I would send raging streaks of flames that caught on their black, inky forms and burned them away from the outside in. My ice attacks were just as effective, making them immobile until I could send my staff slicing through their sides and they would dissipate back into darkness. This attacking felt good and watching the re-releasing of the hearts into the sky made something in my soul lift.

I sent a rather large blast of flame towards a small group of heartless sneaking up on Wanessa's backside and they dissolved into nothing right before my eyes. I felt so much stronger. When Nessa knocked down the last heartless with her shield we stopped for a moment to catch our breath before moving on. While we faced one direction we heard two feet land behind us and we slowly turned to face it.

"Nice fighting." He was tall, dark, and handsome. His long brown hair was spilling over the top of the black leather jacket and the white fur around the collar. His dark brown eyes examined us carefully. He had on several belts, eight minimum. Nessa sucked in her breath quietly when his gaze shifted to her. "Do you have names?"

"If you tell me yours, I'll tell you mine," Nessa said, her voice going extremely flirtatious. The guy smirked and shook his head every so slightly so his bangs would fall away from his eyes. It revealed a scar running from one cheek, across his nose, to his forehead.

"The name's Leon," He said silently.

"Wanessa and Meggan," Nessa introduced us.

"Wanessa and Meggan," He repeated the names, "So you're the ones traveling with the key bearer."

"Yeah," I said, "What's it to you." He took his eyes of Nessa for a moment to look at me. He removed his long gun-blade that was resting on his shoulder to rest the tip on the ground.

"I need your help."


	8. Chapter 8

Wanessa and I were safely stowed away in the cleaning cupboard on the ship. When we first boarded we noticed the disastrous mess everywhere and thought this would be the best place to hide, it seemed nobody went in there. When Sora, Donald, and Goofy climbed aboard Sora was talking about some girl named Jasmine and where she could have possibly gone.

"I hope we find her," Goofy said.

"Yeah," Sora agreed, "Aladdin is really worried about her."

"I just wonder where she got to," Donald said out loud. I almost jumped out of the closet to tell them that Riku was the one taking the girls. "We left her where it was safe." There were murmurs of agreement and after a few moments the ship rumbled to life.

For a few hours we sat in the darkness of the closet and I could feel the smell of bleach soak into my clothes. Great, I was going to smell like a cleaning cupboard. Nessa and I talked about as much as we could remember from the strategy guide and what was going to happen.

"But who knows what's going to happen?" Nessa freaked, "Now that we're in the story we could possibly change everything!" I was just silent for once; I looked around and tried to make out shapes in the dark room. "For all we know we could be stuck here forever and now that Rachel's gone we'll never find her again."

We passed the time with Nessa fretting to herself quietly and me panicking, but hiding it because I didn't want to freak her out anymore than what she already was. While we sat in the dark Sora ran past the closet at least a hundred times. Each time he was looking for something or needed information on how to fight the heartless. Donald and Goofy mostly stayed in the cockpit, directing where we went.

"I NEED A RAG!" Sora yelled after three hours of nothing. He ran past the closet and the mops shook on the wall and one fell onto the floor.

"Try the cleaning closet!" Donald said loudly. Nessa and I looked at each other as best we could in the dark and huddled back further. "What's that Goofy?" Sora's hand was on the door handle and he had it half open.

"SORA!" Goofy yelled.

"WHAT?" He turned to face the cockpit. We could see his face clearly in the hallway light. His spiky brown hair was sticking up as bad as ever and he was only three feet away from us.

"We're coming up on Traverse Town, get ready to open the door." Goofy called back. Sora left the door hanging open and ran away. I let the breath I didn't know I was holding out. I heard Nessa do the same. The ship landed smoothly and the only problem was when the first of the landing gear hit the pad and the entire ship tilted forward.

"SHIT!" I was flung forward and I crashed into the wall directly in front of the doorway. Donald looked over just as I did and his mouth dropped open.

"WHAA?" He yelled. The other two landing legs hit the ground and I was thrown backwards onto my butt. He ran over to me with his staff out and aimed at me. "What are you doing on our ship?"

"We needed a ride?" I smiled and held up my hands as a way of showing I didn't have my weapon…out. Nessa poked her head out of the closet.

"We're so sorry! I told her we shouldn't have just climbed aboard without asking," She started to apologize. Goofy had turned off the ship and Sora got distracted from his door duty and they walked up behind Donald. "But our friend Rachel disappeared after she was tricked into a portal by Maleficent and we have to find her so we can all figure out a way to get home!" Donald was tapping his foot, Goofy was looking sympathetic, and Sora looked at us like he was looking into a mirror. Which I realized, maybe he was.

"Well," Donald started.

"We're in Traverse Town to stock up and then we're off to find Riku and Kairi. And since you already seem to know about the worlds I guess it can't hurt to take you along with us so you can search for your friend Rachel," Sora interrupted. Donald looked at him and sighed, Goofy laughed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

While Sora, Donald, and Goofy got off the ship and stocked up on supplies Nessa and I ran into District two and three to practice our fighting. While we were busy taking down heartless we didn't notice the man standing on one of the rooftops looking down on us. While Nessa plowed through the heartless with sparks of light shooting off her shield every time and they zoned into the heartless surrounding us.

I would send raging streaks of flames that caught on their black, inky forms and burned them away from the outside in. My ice attacks were just as effective, making them immobile until I could send my staff slicing through their sides and they would dissipate back into darkness. This attacking felt good and watching the re-releasing of the hearts into the sky made something in my soul lift.

I sent a rather large blast of flame towards a small group of heartless sneaking up on Wanessa's backside and they dissolved into nothing right before my eyes. I felt so much stronger. When Nessa knocked down the last heartless with her shield we stopped for a moment to catch our breath before moving on. While we faced one direction we heard two feet land behind us and we slowly turned to face it.

"Nice fighting." He was tall, dark, and handsome. His long brown hair was spilling over the top of the black leather jacket and the white fur around the collar. His dark brown eyes examined us carefully. He had on several belts, eight minimum. Nessa sucked in her breath quietly when his gaze shifted to her. "Do you have names?"

"If you tell me yours, I'll tell you mine," Nessa said, her voice going extremely flirtatious. The guy smirked and shook his head every so slightly so his bangs would fall away from his eyes. It revealed a scar running from one cheek, across his nose, to his forehead.

"The name's Leon," He said silently.

"Wanessa and Meggan," Nessa introduced us.

"Wanessa and Meggan," He repeated the names, "So you're the ones traveling with the key bearer."

"Yeah," I said, "What's it to you." He took his eyes of Nessa for a moment to look at me. He removed his long gun-blade that was resting on his shoulder to rest the tip on the ground.

"I need your help."


	9. Chapter 9

Leon's house, as he said, was only temporary. It was small and was overtop of some clothing store in Traverse Town. It was two rooms and his other roommate he said was off doing something odd. Her name was Yuffie and we could tell she was a messy person and Leon was neat.

"What kind of help do you need?" I asked, taking a hold of my glass of water and feeling the sweat on the outside rub off on my hands. Leon sat down with his glass on water and watched as Nessa took a drink.

"I'm not sure where to start," He said, looking at his glass.

"The beginning is usually good," Nessa replied. A hint of a smile played on his lips.

"Very well," He took a quick sip of his water, "Let's see. There has been a legend, from the world I come from, for as long as anyone can remember. There was an idea that a staff, shield, and sword would come and alter the fates of all the worlds. They would send the darkness back into itself and bring light. Each one would symbolize the different forms of light. Pure light, mystic light, and the absence of light and together they would hold back the evil gathering the darkness and send it away."

"Now are we talking figuratively or literally about the weapons?" I asked. Nessa giggled but Leon looked at me seriously.

"In a way its both. Because obviously a staff, shield, and sword couldn't just make themselves come and banish the evil, but in a sense they are. The people wielding these weapons have to trust in them, but they also must believe in themselves," He explained. I sat back and thought for a moment.

"Well if we're actually supposed to save the worlds," I started—

"Then that must be why Maleficent took Rachel!" Nessa finished. Leon looked at her, his brow wrinkling slightly.

"You mean the sword bearer isn't in Traverse Town, helping out Sora or whatever?" He asked. I nodded slowly and Nessa looked down at her hands, which were folded delicately in her lap. "Oh."

"She's obviously evil and has all intentions of keeping us from banishing the darkness," Nessa thought aloud, her face extremely thoughtful, "but why then take Rachel and not you or me?"

"Coincidence?" I suggested, "She was out in the open and we were hiding." I felt incredibly guilty.

"No," Leon said. I looked at him. His eyes left Nessa's and rested on mine. "Rachel carries the sword, correct?" We nodded. "Well the sword is usually known to be extremely powerful, in some ways more so than the staff and shield, but in other ways not. This power influences the bearer to want to take on things much bigger than what they already have and makes them hungry for power."

"So even if it was just coincidence Rachel was out in the open Maleficent got the girl she was seeking the entire time," Nessa said. I sat back in my chair and listened, "Since she carries the sword and is easily tempted that means she can be put against us." Nessa grabbed my arm and I looked into her deep brown eyes, and we both knew the same thing, "Rachel does like power."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A few hours later with our bellies full, food provided by Leon, we were back in the gateway waiting for Sora and the others.

"So what's the plan?" Nessa asked.

"Don't you usually have the plan?" I retorted, crossing my legs and leaning against a hot lamppost, ignoring the slight burning I felt in my shoulder. She shrugged and I sighed, uncrossing my arms and fiddling with the strings on my pants. "Well I suppose we ride along with Sora, Donald, and Goofy to gather enough information to strike out on our own. I'm sure some people will help us, seeing as how we're supposed to be saviors and all."

"Yeah, you've got a point. But what if we can't find anything?" I started to panic a little, knowing my sturdy rock Nessa wasn't so sturdy.

"We have to find something. In the worst case scenario she'll attack us and we'll have to fight her. I mean come on, it's two against one." I tried to play it off cool but the look shared between us was enough to say we knew it wouldn't be easy. Nessa sighed and dropped her head.

"HEY GUYS!" Sora was running across the courtyard towards us. He stopped in front of us and held out the keyblade. "Check this out!" He pulled a lamp shaped key chain out of his pocket and clipped it onto the hook at the end of the keyblade. A bright flash nearly blinded us but when the white spots dissipated I could see his keyblade was differently shaped.

"What happened to it?" I asked, admiring the now golden and longer shape of it.

"I'm not exactly sure," He admitted slowly. "But whenever we leave a world I get another one that reminds me of it and sometimes magic is easier and other times its just plain easier to beat stuff up." I laughed.

"That's great Sora," Nessa laughed. Donald and Goofy finally reached us.

"Are you guys ready to go?" Goofy asked. We nodded. "Alright climb aboard the Gummy Ship and we'll take off shortly." As we walked towards the gate Nessa was hanging back slightly. When I peeked over my shoulder she was giving googly-eyed waves to Leon. I rolled my eyes and laughed.


	10. Chapter 10

The shower I took after talking with Maleficent was the most amazing thing ever. The hot water felt good on my grimy skin and the soap washed off all of the dirt, sand, and sweat. When I stepped out of the shower there were clothes ready for me to wear. They were just a pair of normal jeans and a black shirt but I felt very odd putting them on, wondering what happened to my clothes.

Once I was dressed I walked out of the bathroom where Riku was waiting for me. He was leaning against the wall with his slivery hair framing his face. I tilted my head and studied him for a moment. His bright green eyes were looking down the hall, almost like they were looking for something.

"Okay." I said. He looked at me and pushed himself off the wall. I couldn't help but watch the muscles in his arms move as they performed such a simple task. Holey Smokes.

"Maleficent wishes to see you again." I looked at him confused. I'd already talked to her what else did she want?

We walked through the confusing hallways and I tried to remember everything I saw, including a doorway to the outside, through which a little sunlight came through. When we were back in front of the chamber doors Riku kept walking.

"Isn't that the meeting room?" I asked, confused. He stopped in front of a smaller door and opened it.

"Yes, but she wishes to meet with you in here," He explained, holding the heavy wooden door open for me. I limped up next to him and peeked inside.

"Sure is dark in there, don't you think?" I asked, checking his facial expression. But before I could really catch anything in his face his hand reached out and grabbed my arm. He shoved me forward so hard I tripped over a lump in the floor and landed flat on my face. "Shit." I muttered. Slowly lifting myself up. I pushed myself to my feet and turned to face him as he was slamming the door. I launched myself at it, trying to throw him backward. "YOU BASTARD, WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" I screamed. I pounded my fist against the door but he'd already shut it and walked into the chamber. "UGH!" I stomped around the cell, stopping only when my foot couldn't handle the pressure anymore and I collapsed on the wall to the left of the door. I leaned my head against it.

"That smarmy vizier could've had 'em –," Someone said from the other side, "if someone had stuck around to give him a hand." I pushed my ear closer to the wall.

"Hey I did my part. I brought the princess didn't I?" Riku answered. I ground my teeth at the sound of his voice. Even though all we'd done was attack each other since we met, I felt we were getting along slightly.

"Jafar was beyond help," Maleficent said. I remembered her offer of power to me and wondered why she would throw her allies in a chamber so very dislikeable. "Consumed by his own hatred. One should beware of letting it burn too fiercely."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Lighten up," the other guy said, "I'm as cool as they come, okay? By the way, kid, have we got something special for you." He muttered something. Stupid handsome boy, I thought.

"We had a deal, yes?" Maleficent said smoothly, "You help us, and we grant your wish."

"KAIRI!" He yelled. I suddenly felt myself getting worried. _What was my problem_? I searched my brain as thoroughly as possible trying to remember whom that Kairi girl was. _What's the big deal?, _I asked myself.

"Go to her, your vessel is waiting," Maleficent instructed. _It's not like anything besides abuse is going on. _

"Just remember," Someone else entered the room, his voice heavy with a pirate accent, "this is no pleasure cruise. It won't be a pleasant voyage."

"Why are you doing this for me? What's the catch?" Riku asked. _Oh so he does question authority. He's not just a puppet._

"Catch? What's the catch?" Maleficent cooed, "Silly boy. You're like a son to me. I only want you to be happy."

"I seriously doubt that."

"Believe what you wish. But lest we forget I kept my end of the bargain," She said as a set of footsteps left the chamber. I launched myself to the door and looked through the metal bars to see into the hallway. I poked my head as far through as I could, but he was headed the other direction. I slumped back against the wall.

"….girl's power. Should we tell him?" The first man's voice asked.

"Maybe," The other man said.

"Idiots," Maleficent mumbled. "His anger, rage, and pent up feelings of loneliness are all we have at controlling him. If you let them all out at once it's a waste."

"We'll be off then," The pirate said.

"I'll go get the girl." The first man suggested. They both left the room and I heard Maleficent start to laugh.

"So you're what all this hubbub is about." I moved my head so fast I thought my neck would break from the force of it. I stared up between the bars and saw a very tall blue man with a head of flaming blue hair looking down on me. "You don't look like much of a threat." I glared at him with my lips pursed. I pulled myself to my feet. "Well I'm supposed to take you with me. There was a long debate on whether you should go with the Captain or me. But I suggested a few tournaments to test your power would be good before sending you off on a mission." He started to unlock the door and I cautiously limped up to it.

The lock clicked and as soon as there was enough room for me to get through I bolted. He just laughed as I limp/ran away. Suddenly blue flames sprouted in front of me and blocked my path. I growled in frustration and he continued to laugh.

"You're the most anxious prisoner I think we've had in a long time," He said. I didn't know whether to take it as a compliment. "But listen. I've got a deal for ya Gimpy." I fumed angrily. "If you go with me to Olympus and fight in the trials, and you pass those trials I'll let you go off on the mission alone as long as you promise to return."

"And what if I don't return?" I asked.

"Then Maleficent gave me permission to throw you in the underworld until I decide to let you out," He looked at me, that amused look flashing in his eyes again, "I can tell you'd be a fun one to keep down there."

"There has to be something else. That's not much motivation to keep me in line," I tried to get him to understand.

"I think that's plenty motivation." He grabbed my shoulder and I felt like I was being suction cupped through a wall and then hung on a clothesline by my toes. When we stopped I sucked in a deep breath. Where we were was dark. A river that felt like water floated past our feet, but when I lifted my foot out of the murky water, my pants were still dry. The place was as dark as a cave and just standing here made me feel sick. "See?"

"Yes," I admitted quietly.

"You'll stay out of here, and Maleficent said you can see your friends again," He held out his hand and a little white orb appeared. I could see Meg and Nessa sitting in some sort of ship cabin.

"Where are they?" I asked.

"Who knows?" He snapped his hand closed. "So do you accept the challenge?" I could feel myself getting weaker and the offer of Maleficent's power still rang in my ears.

"I accept."


	11. Chapter 11

We boarded the ship rather hastily. Sora and Goofy loaded up all of their supplies into the supply cupboard and Donald started the ship up. Nessa and I stood around not really knowing what to do. I was standing rather close behind Donald and watching him work the controls of the ship and when I turned around to mention something to Nessa she was gone.

"Hey—," I looked around for her. She was back near the broom cupboard, picking up all the cleaning supplies and setting them back in neatly. I looked at her for a moment. Nessa was always a neat freak. Everything had to look nice, if it wasn't hers, and she was a guest in that house. So once she had that hallway cleaned up she moved to the kitchen and started working on the kitchen area. I sighed. "So Donald…"

"Yeah?" He said slowly.

"How do you fly a Gummy ship?" I asked, sitting down in the seat next to him. He looked at me for a moment.

"It's really easy, you hold onto this stick here and usually the ship does exactly what you want it to do unless it knows for a fact the odds of doing it are impossible and will definitely destroy you," He explained.

"What happens when the overdrive kicks in?"

"When the overdrive kicks in the ship tries to take you to the nearest none heartless infested area and keep you there until the danger follows or goes away all together."

"What if you really needed to get through a hopeless situation and the ship won't let you."

"Then you just pull these cords down here." He pointed to a set of red cords just below the dashboard. "But don't be surprised if your ship has a defense system because that's also the non-manual wires. Once you pull them you're on your own steering the ship."

I sat up in the cockpit with Donald for a while. We talked about the Gummy Ship and Magic for most of the flight. Mostly the heartless weren't too bad. A few large ships full of them would fly past and once while I was looking out into the darkness of space I thought I saw a pirate ship sailing behind a world, but I shook the image out of my head. It was too weird, even for most of these worlds, how would they breathe?

When Donald got a little hungry I offered to go back and get him something to eat. As I walked back through the hallways I could hear Goofy and Sora yelling about it being so clean and looking so nice. When I walked into the kitchen every surface shone with cleaner and some unknown, sweet scent filled the air.

"Wow this does look nice," I said. She smiled at me and Goofy and Sora looked up at me. "Just coming to get Donald some food," I explained. I started to rummage through the cupboards.

"EVERYBODY GET YOUR SEAT BELTS ON!" Donald yelled from the cockpit. Immediately Sora, Goofy, and Nessa were strapped to their chairs at the table. I sprinted to the cockpit, getting knocked into a wall as something hit the side of the ship and sent it on its side. I was near the ceiling when Donald righted the ship and I was thrown to the floor.

"OWW. Bitch." I muttered, standing up and sprinting the rest of the way to my chair in the cockpit. I strapped myself in just as the giant blue whale.

"WHALE?" I exclaimed.

"Monstro," Some little voice said from next to me. I screamed, seeing a cricket standing on the dashboard in front of me. He wore a jacket and a hat. The pirate ship in space was now possible.

"Monstro?" The whale was coming straight for us, its giant teeth spread so far apart I was sure it could swallow an entire world. The ship started to back up but we didn't have enough speed. The giant jaws surrounded us and surrounded us in darkness.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Nessa?" I called into the darkness. I could see a little bit of a red light, glowing above the exit door. "Nessa?" I called again, this time my voice a little bit stronger. I got a groan in response from down the hallway. I slowly reached around with my hands unbuckled myself from the seat. I fell forward onto my face, hitting the dashboard with enough force to have possibly broken my nose.

I stood up slowly; swaying side to side with the effort, my head was killing me. I tired to keep from throwing up my lunch as I pulled up the long wall to reach Nessa in the kitchen, which I think was now located in the air. Once I hauled myself up there I spotted Nessa still strapped into her chair with a stream of blood running from her head. _Great,_ I muttered. I lugged myself up onto the wall of the kitchen.

"Come on Nessa wake up." I said, reaching up to unbuckle her from the chair. I almost had my hand around the clasp when she suddenly grabbed my hand. I screamed.

"Don't do that!" She said, wiggling herself so she faced me.

"What? Why not?" I asked, trying to get my arm back.

"I'll fall straight down into the cockpit," She explained.

"Oh. Then what do you want me to do?"

"Rotate the table."

"How the hell do I do that?" I asked, looking around for a switch or something on the wall.

"Just push my chair so my back is facing the cockpit." She released my hand and I grabbed the top of her chair and shoved down as hard as I could. The chair only moved a little bit. I kept shoving. "Wait, wait, wait!" She called. I kept shoving. She smacked my arm and tried to keep me from shoving, but I ignored her. She reached her hand under the table and suddenly all the chairs came loose.

I was still holding on to the side of the chair as it raced halfway up the other side of the table and then raced back down so I was hanging on the back, looking into the cockpit.

"What'd you do that for?" I yelled. Trying to reach the wall with my foot now.

"I didn't do it. I told you to stop!" She argued. The chair started moving and my feet were a few inches above the wall when I jumped off. She was slammed back over the hallway again. Now she unbuckled her seatbelt, blood still dripping from her head wound.

"What about your head?" I asked.

"Head wounds bleed a lot," She muttered. Now she was leaning over the side of the chair with her face a few feet above mine. "Please push my feet closer to that wall." So I reached up and pushed the tip of the chair into the air and she slowly slid down onto the wall. "Let's go!" And we slid down the hallway like it was a giant slide.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: So I haven't written in a while. Don't hate me please. And I also just realized my word is permanently on double-spaced. Which is nice because I have to do all my papers that way. That saves like…five seconds. HA! Well enjoy.

Ancient Greece was actually a very nice place. The sun was warm and the meadow surrounding the Olympus Coliseum was grassy and beautiful. A few trees shaded the tall flowing grass and I thought I could hear a whisper rustling the leaves. Hades pushed open the door to the Coliseum and almost immediately I could hear the sounds of battle coming through the small room leading to the ring.

"You'll be waiting until my tournament to fight," Hades explained, as I looked around at all the different warriors. "But you'll use Phil's practice course, he won't object and Wonder Breath is off at Olympus."

"Wonder Breath?" I asked. I winced slightly when I stepped on a pebble oddly. Hades looked down at me and sighed.

"Herc the Jerk, Hero to all, Hercules," He threw out examples, "What are we going to do about your ankle?" I shrugged and so did he. We made our way into the small room connecting the entrance to the fighting ring. "When we entered the room there was a tall man with spiky blond hair leaning up against the wall. His face was almost covered by a red cloth that stuck out of the top of armor. He looked up when we entered.

"It's about time Hades," He said, his voice deep and depressive. "Hercules just left for Olympus, disqualifying himself for this tournament."

"Wonder Breath can't escape his doom much longer, neither can that twerp and his friends," Hades growled, his blueness was turning a slight purple, with what I assumed to be red anger. "We'll just have to wait until the Pegasus Cup then." The man's eyes flickered to me.

"Who is that?"

"THAT?" I asked, glaring at him. "I am a person, not a thing." He smirked.

"I apologize."

"That's Maleficent's new weapon I suppose," Hades said, I looked up and glared at him, "I'm going to put her through Phil's cup to see what she's made of." He nodded. I punched Hades arm rather hard, making him rub it. I stepped forward and extended my hand to him.

"I'm Rachel," I said. His lips twitched into a smile.

"Cloud."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Phil, a very small goat man, wasn't very happy about Hades putting me in the tournament. According to him "Four words for ya, he's no good!" I just shrugged it off. I had no intention of being locked up in that disgusting underworld for an undetermined amount of time until Hades got sick of torturing me and released me. And the offer Maleficent made. The thought of agreeing to her demands was pushing at the edge of my mind. I wanted that power.

"ROUND ONE!" Phil yelled. I was facing four power wild and three soldier heartless. I easily sliced through them. I was getting used to the pain in my ankle and it barely bothered me anymore. Round two commenced with me fighting several smaller heartless. I destroyed each round of heartless easily. Near round seven though, with two large bodies and several green requiems I started to have trouble dodging their huge bodies, my ankle kept twisting wrong and a spasm would run up my leg. I grit my teeth and thought 'why the hell not?' I felt a new wave of power surge through my veins and suddenly the fat bodies were sent reeling backwards. They flew into each other, both soft spots were exposed and they blew up. I stared in amazement.

"Way to blow!" Hades called. I think it was a compliment. So I fought my way through the rest of the tournament.


	13. Chapter 13

Monstro stunk. Badly.

After we stepped off the ship we were immediately overcome with fumes of dead fish and rotting wood. There were so many platforms rising out of the Whale's mouth. We stood on the edge of the water, unable to see the bottom. Nessa picked up a wooden board and touched the surface of the water with it. It had the consistency of pool water but in some places it stuck like saliva.

"I am not swimming in that," I said simply. Nessa looked at me like I'd just said I was not going to lick a wooly mammoth. "What?"

"Obviously. That's absolutely disgusting. We have no idea what this thing ate," She said in a duh voice. I glared at her for a moment but she'd already starting climbing up the wooden planks so we could jump across the tops to get to the ship that we could see Sora standing on in the distance, probably the back of the throat.

"Aggh." I muttered climbing up behind her.

"No, its more of an 'Agghhhhhh' like at the back of the throat," she corrected. I smiled to myself, shaking my head. We reached the top of the platform. It would have been a nice view, except we were surrounded by whale gums and it was dark. "Hmm I wonder."

"Wonder what?" I barely finished when Nessa had leapt to the platform across from us. I stared at her. "What on earth did you do that for?" I yelled. She smiled.

"Go on," She called, "You can do it too."

"How do you know?" I yelled/whispered back, giving her a scared look. She laughed. I looked at her for a long moment and then backed up. I ran forward and jumped across, landing next to her, holding my breath.

"That wasn't so bad was it?" She asked. I glared at her.

We jumped across the rest of the platforms and landed on the boat just as Sora started to jump with incredible power.

"What happened to you?" I asked. He shrugged.

"We went in the stomach after Pinocchio," Goofy explained, "But Sora's friend just came through and after we fought some heartless they disappeared into that stomach room. Gheppeto was just helping us learn to jump higher."

"RIKU!" Nessa and I looked at each other. "Was there a girl with him?"

"Why would there be a girl with him?" Sora asked, not even looking at us. He was thinking deeply.

"OUR FRIEND RACHEL!" I gritted my teeth and growled. Nessa put her hand on my arm.

"Calm down," She whispered. Sora looked taken back, "Sorry."

"What? You think Riku took your friend?" Sora asked, finding anger. "He wouldn't do something like that, he's my friend." I scoffed but Nessa just shook her head.

"No Sora that's not what we think," She lied. He backed up a couple steps.

"Well we might as well go after him," Donald suggested.

"We'll go with you and look for Rachel," Nessa suggested. And we all started off into the throat. "Aghh." She offered but I wasn't in the mood to smile anymore.

XXXXXXXXXXX

When we reached the top area of the throat Riku was standing over the puppet.

"RIKU!" Sora yelled, "Let Pinocchio go."

"A puppet that's lost its heart to the heartless. Maybe it holds the key to helping Kairi," Riku paused for a moment, "How about it Sora? Let's join forces to save her. We can do it together." Sora looked at the ground and then raised the key blade, ready to fight. "What? You'd rather fight me? Over a puppet with no heart."

"Heart or no heart," Sora said, "At least he still has a Conscience." I wanted to jump forward and shake that boy with the silver hair. Shake his brains until he told me where Rachel was but Nessa held me back.

"Conscience?"

"You might not hear it, but right now its loud and clear and its telling me you're on the wrong side!" Sora got ready to fight! I started walking towards that boy. My staff was drawn and I had it pointed towards him.

"What happened to Rachel?" I asked. Nessa came up right beside me.

"Maybe its best not to threaten?" She suggested, though I could hear the doubt in her voice. He just stood there smirking at us.

"She's off somewhere," he said. I lunged at him but as I did he opened up a portal and stepped through it just as that stupid giant squid thing dropped down from the ceiling and immediately started to suck up stomach juices and blast them into the air.

"I really don't like him," I told Nessa as she held up her shield and deflected the acidic gas from hurting us. Once the thing stopped shooting us I jumped into the air and started to whack it with my staff and blast magic spells at the same time.

It didn't take very long to defeat the disgusting parasite. When we did Pinocchio was okay and we returned him to Gheppeto and climbed aboard the ship.

"Huh," Goofy said, looking at the scanner. "that's weird."

"What is?" Donald asked. Sora had plopped down on the big couch, followed by Nessa and they promptly fell asleep. I stood behind them while they readied the ship, watching how they turned it on.

"There's somethin' suspicious about that gray mark. It says its right outside the whale," he explained. "Look at the color."

"Why does that matter?" I asked.

"Heartless ships usually show up black and our ships show up white," Donald explained. "That's gray, we don't know what it is." They shrugged it off as a glitch and said when they got home they would have Chip and Dale look into it. I fell asleep on the couch across from Nessa and Sora and all the while I had fiery images flying through my mind.


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: I know Cloud is supposed to not be with Hades after Sora fights him the first time but I had to tweak it a bit. Sorry, but enjoy. BTW go to you tube and search kingdom hearts Piano Melody, it'll be by GermanSeabass. It's amazing.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hades had gone down in the Underworld to check on something. He seemed pretty excited because he was smiling and saying things about Wonder Breath's end. I had taken off my shoes and socks and Cloud was checking my ankle. It was swollen, purple, black and blue. I winced when he touched it his fingers were oddly cool.

"This is broken," He said, feeling the bones. I just squinted my eyes shut.

"I figured."

"Well I suppose we could find a healer to fix it," He muttered, looking around. "EXC-" he started to yell.

"That won't be necessary." My eyes snapped open at the familiar voice. Maleficent was standing before us. "I shall heal your ankle dear child." She leaned forward to inspect the damage." Cloud stared at her. "I would have fixed it before you left Hallow Bastion, but everyone was in such a rush."

"Yeah sure," I mumbled under my breath. She touched her freezing hands to my ankle and once again I could feel an odd coolness leave her body and enter mine.

"How did you like the darkness?" she asked.

"What?"

"You used it to fight in the tournament. Those heartless, though made of darkness, could not stand up the strength of your power, and you have but only a taste." I shrugged. She stood up, my ankle was no longer bruised. "I expect when Hades is finished with you here, he'll bring you back to Hallow Bastion so that you may meet with Riku and finish our plans."

"What plans are those?" I asked.

"His friend Sora will be moving into the Captain's course in two days time. He plans to intercept them," She explained.

"Why would I want to help with that?"

"Your friends are with him." She started to walk away and in only a moment she had disappeared into a portal.

"I loath her." I growled. Cloud was still sitting on the wall, just looking at me. Hades had returned.

"So have I got news for you kid!" He exclaimed, putting a huge blue hand on my shoulder. I looked up at him. "It seems the brat and his friends beat the Pegasus Cup while you were knocked out at Hollow Bastion."

"How is that a good thing?" I asked.

"Well its not, not really," He said, still not loosing his upbeat attitude, "But Jerkules's cup is tomorrow! So that means Cloud's already entered and since you can't have more than one person from a sponsor you, Short Stuff, are going to do everything in your power to upset that little twerp and whoever his friends are."

"Okay…" I said, unsure about it.

"Just remember, you don't do what you're told and…" He didn't have to finish. I would get tossed in that Underworld and any chance of me finding my friends and getting out of here was caput…. Not to mention the power Maleficent offered, it would be gone.


	15. Chapter 15

I woke up feeling strangely warm. The entire time I slept I had dreams of fire and mixtures of darkness and light. I was running, in a panic, but never really reaching my destination. All I could see ahead of me, when the flashes of fire that would light up the hallway, was a black pile of fabric on the floor and a red mass at one end.

Donald and Goofy were the only ones awake. I walked up behind them and asked how long until we landed. They answered that it would only be half an hour. I looked out the window, my eyes searching the empty void of space for some clue as to Rachel's whereabouts. We passed worlds closely, but only so you could see the kind of climates that ruled them. A few of the one's we passed were devoid of life entirely, just black circles of darkness.

"Meg." I jumped. Nessa's hand was on my shoulder. "We're in Traverse Town." I nodded. We exited the ship and walked through the gates. Almost immediately Sora took off to find Cid so he could put in the next Gummie Block.

"Nessa," I called, before she could walk off, "We've got to do research. I mean we know so little about the Worlds and everything that's happening. Traverse Town has so many people that could teach us what they know. Leon, that old guy…uhh Merlin, and whoever else." She looked at me and nodded. "Look!" I said pointing to a poster. "Olympus Coliseum Hercules Cup," I read. "We could enter this Tournament and get stronger. We could train a bit and then we'd be good. So if it does come down to a battle with Rachel we won't completely be lost."

"I think it's a great idea," Nessa agreed, "While these guys are running around here lets ask around for help. I'm sure Leon will give us a hand, Yuffie too." I laughed.

"Okay, you just like my plan because it involved Leon," I teased. Nessa immediately reddened.

"Tha—no" she stuttered, "I like this plan because it makes sense." I laughed and ran to catch up with Sora.

"Let us know when you're leaving!" I called, running past him as Nessa was coming up behind me.

"COME BACK HERE!" She yelled. I just laughed and pushed through the doors to the Second District.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So you want to know everything about the heartless and the worlds?" Leon asked. Beside him stood Merlin and Yuffie. They'd been discussing something when we came in, but stopped when we entered.

"There's a lot even we don't know," Yuffie said.

"Doesn't matter. We're going to save our friend even if it means going straight into the darkness ourselves," I said.

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely positive." I could see a look pass between Nessa and Leon but I ignored it for the moment. Honestly.

"Very well sit down."

For the next couple of hours all we learned was about the realms. How heartless came into beings, what the purpose behind bandannas and anklets were, how Gummy Ships could travel through space. How other large objects could travel through space, like the whale and the pirate ship I thought I saw. Leon and Yuffie helped Wanessa learn to wield her shield more like a weapon. Yuffie even popped a few of her ninja stars apart and stuck them on the end of shield. Merlin helped me concentrate on my magic. Teaching me several new spells including lightening, gravira, fiagra, bilzzara, and curaga.

XXXXXXXX

"Okay, okay," Merlin huffed, "That's enough. I think you're ready for the tournament." I smiled in triumph. I'd finally beaten the old man battling with magic. Nessa was fighting Yuffie currently, sending her ninja stars back with a slight movement of her shield.

"I agree," Leon called, "Yuffie! Stop attacking Wanessa!" The little ninja backed off and did a flip, landing next to Leon. Nessa walked up and joined us. "Their ready to go, don't you think?"

"Totally," She agreed. "Good luck guys, I have to go help Cid!" she took off running towards the first district. We waved her goodbye.

"So," Leon started.

"HEY MEG, NESSA!" Sora came running up. "We're about to get going. Apparently there's some sort of planet we missed that's almost covered in darkness. It's the opposite way of the whale. We gotta go!"

"Okay, but we're going to have you guys drop us off at the Coliseum because you have to be there for Hercules Cup anyway," Nessa explained. Sora nodded.

"Well we have to go, Donald might leave us behind," He started running.

"Good luck!" Merlin called as we started running.

"See ya," Leon said in goodbye. Nessa turned and waved. We raced to the first district.

XXXXXXX

They dropped us off at the Coliseum several hours before the Pegasus Cup was about to start.

"I wonder why Sora didn't want to fight in this one," Nessa said. I shrugged.

"Maybe he just wants to find Riku," I guessed, "Since Rachel's obviously not with him, seeing as how she would talk to us if she was, we have to find her somewhere." Nessa was signing our names on the sign up sheet and I was looking around. I spotted a man with spiky blond hair walking across the courtyard. His long red cape was tattered at the bottom and he wore a suit of armor, not fit for this sort of environment, he was from another world.

Nessa was talking but I wasn't listening. He stopped in front of a girl who had brown hair and was kind of short. I took a step closer but as she turned around to greet him a huge group of tourists walked in front of me.

"MEG!" I turned around quickly. "What are you looking at?" Nessa asked.

"I thought I saw Rachel," I answered. I turned my head, the crowd up people was gone, but so was the girl and the guy.

"Why would she be here?"

"I don't know, but I'm positive it was her I saw."

"Okay we'll keep an eye out for her."

XXXXXXXXX

The Tournament started. Our first match was against some ghosts, bandits, and pirates. We easily defeated them and moved up in the rounds. Nessa and I were barely out of breath by the 7th round. The 8th round consisted of three fat bandits and three large bodies. While Phil was going over the previous scores we worked out a plan.

The bell clanged and the match started. The large bodies immediately launched themselves at us. Wanessa jumped in front of me and with her newly spiked shield blocked them off with an almost blinding flash of light that sent them flying back into the fat bandits. I jumped over the pile of them and pointed my staff and their backsides.

"BLIZZARA!" I yelled. I could feel the icy snowstorm whip around me and with my hair blowing I sent the ice out in a shockwave that hit all of them. Nessa jumped forward again and smashed into them all with the spikes on her shield. The fat bodies disappeared into nothing and the fat bandits were standing up again. They pulled back their heads and started to gather air to blast fire at us.

"BLIZZARD THEM!" Nessa yelled, holding up her shield. I gathered up my power and just as they released their fireballs I sent a wind full of icy shards in their direction.

They exploded into nothing and we stood as champions of round 8. Nessa and I high fived, me not using my left hand and Nessa's right, Rachel wasn't there.

"You ready for round 9?" We turned around. Leon and Yuffie were standing behind us. Nessa immediately became flustered and Leon walked up to talk to her. They started to whisper in hushed tones. I walked up to Yuffie.

"Have you seen a short girl with brown hair, she's probably in all black," I asked. Yuffie looked around.

"Well, there's a couple people in all black," She said, "But earlier there was a guy with spiky blond hair, Cloud I think is his name, he was sitting with a girl and she left just a moment ago. He's sitting near the edge over there." She pointed to the edge of the Coliseum where there was a dark passage next to him.

"ROUND 8!" Phil yelled, "READY? SET! FIGHT!"


	16. Chapter 16

I sat up in the stands with Cloud for most of the Pegasus Cup. I watched as Meg and Nessa kicked ass to get to the finals and fight the tall guy with a million belts and the short ninja girl. During the 8th round though, I spotted Hades at the bottom of the grate motioning for me to join him. I sighed and stood up.

"Yes?" I asked, showing the anger in my voice.

"So those are your friends owning at this cup?" I nodded, "Remember our deal?"

"Yes," I said slowly.

"Wrong!" He laughed. "Maleficent says you must first defeat Sora and his friends before you're allowed to even speak with them." I stared at him, my mouth hanging open in disbelief. "But since I'm a nice guy," He added, "I've decided to allow you to speak to your friends."

"On what conditions?"

"OH Smart girl!" He applauded, "On the Condition that you will attack Hercules before the cup tomorrow and weaken him, kill him if you can, but if not weaken him so he looses." Maybe I can escape with them and we can hide somewhere. "Don't even think about running away," Hades warned, he smiled at me and put his hand on my shoulder, "You don't want to go into the Underworld do you?" I felt my energy being drained and the light around us disappearing.

"NO!" I gasped. He released my shoulder and the light came flooding into me.

"Good, now get back to the games and figure out how you're going to explain this to your little friends."

XXXXXXXX

I sat out in the courtyard, I didn't bother to watch how the match ended. Though there was much cheering so I guessed Leon and Yuffie won, apparently they always did. When people started to file out I moved behind the tree but as I took a step I was suddenly surrounded by a purple light and shoved to the ground. I got a mouthful of sand.

Two people were standing over me in seconds. I tried to move my head but I couldn't.

"What the hell was that for?" I yelled. I was enraged they'd thrown me on the ground like that. A familiar power ran through me and all of a sudden the weight was gone in an explosion that blew the leaves off the tree. I got to my feet quickly. "MEGGAN! NESSA!" I yelled. I ran to them and hugged them. Squishing them with my hug.

"RACHEL! You're okay!" Nessa said. I nodded. Meg hugged me back tightly.

"Okay now that we have you we have to go!" Meg whispered into my ear. My face immediately darkened. I could still feel the after effects of Hades trick on my shoulder. "Our ship will be here in little less than half an hour and we can hide in the ship deck until then!"

"I can't!" I whispered back, letting go and stepping away from them. I couldn't look into their eyes.

"And why the hell not?" Meg asked. Without looking at her I knew immediately that her hands were on her hips and her face getting tight with anger. Wanessa was probably staring at me in disbelief and hurt.

"I can't, these people they have a serious amount of power! They could get us back to our world, I just have to finish some stuff for them," I explained, and it hit me that's what I was really after.

"You're just scared to leave them," Meg said in disbelief.

"That too."

"You don't trust us to get you away safely," Nessa finally said, "Way to be confident in us."

"It's not that! I saw you guys fight you're amazing!" I said, "But…."

"No! There are no buts! Come on Rachel we have to get you out of here! We're going to help Sora find the King and he will get rid of the darkness."

"Rachel," his sly voice was behind me now. I could feel Hades hand on my shoulder, threatening to squeeze, "Who are your friends?" Meggan and Wanessa stared at him.

"Rachel!" Meg urgently called my name, completely ignoring Hades, "Let's get out of here. He's working for the heartless and he'll be overcome with darkness just as the other ones did." Hades laughed, but I think I could only hear it. His fingers tightened on my shoulder, I started to feel a little lightheaded.

"Rachel wouldn't leave without first fulfilling her promise," Hades said, "would she?" I shook my head.

"THIS IS RIDICULOUS!" Meg yelled. She reached forward to grab my hand but I blew her back. I didn't want her to feel this. She fell back on the grass and stared at me. Hades removed his hand and I could think clearly again. I looked down. Nessa stood between us and looked from me to Meg, and back again. She took a step for me but thought better of it and moved to Meg.

"I'm sorry!" I cried, I felt the hot sting of tears in my eyes, but I forced them back. I turned and ran the other way. They didn't understand! Nobody did.

"Of course they don't understand," Her smooth voice entered my head. I stopped running to realize I was in the middle of an empty coliseum. "They don't know what it is like to have such powers. They're jealous. All they want is the power to themselves and they don't trust you anymore."

Maleficent materialized out of nowhere and stood before me. I looked at her through teary eyes; she resembled a dragon in my blurred vision. I wiped my eyes.

"What do you want?" I asked bitterly.

"Only to grant you a gift," She said, "since you didn't betray us and try to leave you are in line of a gift." I looked at her. "Do you accept."

"I guess so."

"Yes or no?" What else did I have to loose?

"Yes."

"Good, now close your eyes." I did. I felt myself growing in power.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Maleficent gasped. She returned to Hallow Bastion only seconds ago.

"Ansem!" She gasped, "Why does that girl drain me so?"

"Her heart is more open to the darkness than his," he explained, his deep voice penetrating the still air, "Before you granted her a little taste of the power she already had darkness boiling inside her. You just enticed her even greater. But don't worry Maleficent soon she will be able to draw her power straight from darkness herself, unlike our Riku." Maleficent's breathing had returned to normal, "Now go to the ship and make sure their paths cross soon. Any more delays and our plan will fail."


	17. Chapter 17

The Gummy Ship was already in the loading dock as Wanessa and I into the chamber. Sora had just jumped out of the door while we walked past.

"Hey guys!" He yelled. I ignored him and climbed aboard the ship. What was wrong with Rachel? "Where's your friend?"

"She's not coming with us," Wanessa said quietly. She climbed aboard after me, Sora shut the door behind us. We explained everything to them.

"So how are we going to get her away from them?" I asked after the ship had already taken off. Sora shrugged, and Nessa looked thoughtful.

"Did she seem loyal or scared to you?" She asked. I looked up, giving her a confused look. "Well if she's loyal to them then it won't be easy to get her away, she might be consumed by darkness already. But if she was scared and didn't want to get us hurt then she's actually just trying to protect us and we must then go to the head honchos and destroy them."

"You've got a very good point," Sora said, "When I saw Riku in Traverse Town, he seemed loyal to them. I don't know how I'm going to get him away."

"Well Riku's an asshole," I muttered. Sora glared at me.

"He is not! He's just not himself."

"Whatever."

"Well Rachel's not exactly a nice person either."

"Okay whatever," I mumbled. "We need a plan."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The world we landed in was dark. Very dark. There were scary faces and iron fences everywhere you look. The decrepit civilians were as bad as the crumbling stonewalls. We walked along the path, them staring at us.

"You know Donald," Goofy said slowly, "I don't think we blend in to well." Donald nodded and raised his staff; we all glowed silver for a moment.

Sora took on the look of a vampire, half of his face devoured by an evil pumpkin. He had little black wings coming out of his jacket and he became a pastel colored being. Donald was wrapped up like a mummy, part of his middle missing. Goofy became a werewolf with an ex'd out eye. Wanessa had on a long, tatter, black skirt and a puffed white shirt with bloody stains on the sleeves. Her long brown hair was matted and tangled. She looked like a murdered tavern worker. I had on ripped black and white stockings, a short black skirt and a corset stained with blood. My skin was so pale it was almost translucent and my short hair was tossed around.

"Cool!" Nessa, Sora, and I exclaimed at the same time. We laughed.

"Well hello there!" We turned and saw a very tall skeleton in a tattered old suit standing across the way. "Welcome to Halloween Town!"

"Hi there!" Sora said walking forward.

"I'm Jack Skellington and this is Sally," He said, introducing the rag doll girl standing next to him.

"I'm Sora, and that's Donald and Goofy."

"I'm Meg and this is Nessa," I added.

"I'm absolutely delighted to meet you!" He actually did sound happy.

"So what are all these heartless doing here?" Sora asked.

"Oh, that's what they're called," Jack exclaimed, "Well I want to use them as dancers in our Halloween celebration, but I can't get them to dance with me." I tugged on Nessa's sleeve.

"Come on, let's get out of here," I whispered. We ran off while they discussed Dr. Finklestein and the heartless. As we ran off towards a gate that lead to a grave yard we saw three little kids heading across a hill in a bathtub. "Let's follow them." Nessa nodded and we followed them to a giant clubhouse. It was absolutely huge!

We walked up the planks cautiously. There were heartless just standing around, not attacking us, or even moving for that matter. We watched them uneasily and made our way up the winding planks.

"Hey look!" Nessa pointed. There was a treasure chest in one of the chambers that randomly hung from the branches. "I wonder what's in it."

"Probably just some random Gummy shit," I said, looking for a way to get to the door that I could barely see on the platform above us. "Hey, what do you thin-" I looked around for her, "Wanessa?"

"OVER HERE!" She called. She was standing on the platform across from the metal cage, judging the distance to jump across.

"What are you doing? We have to find a portal to the Evil Honchos."

"I know. But what if this is full of puppies?"

"Let Sora get it, I have a feeling they'll be this way later on in the day." She ignored me and continued to bounce on her legs. I started to walk towards her, intending on dragging her along behind me. She backed up several steps and pushed on her back leg. Then suddenly she was running forward. She jumped and flew across the gap. My mouth gaped open as she landed smoothly and opened the chest. Three puppies ran around her yapping with delight, and then they disappeared into the air.

"Nice, now lets go!" I called. She started to walk across the metal when a sort of sonic wave of darkness flashed through the air.

"What was that?" She called.

"I don't know but get over here!" She walked a little quicker but then I saw a heartless on the branch with the rope. It was gnawing on the rope. I raised my staff and named.

"MEG WAIT!"

"FIARGRA!" I shot straight at the heartless and hit it straight on. It disappeared; the hearts it had stolen flew into the sky. "Shit." Some of the flames from my attack had bounced off and had caught the rope on fire. "NESSA JUMP!" She started to run but just as she was about to push off the cage fell.

I raced to the edge of the platform and dove after her. I caught on to the rope and as we fell to the bottom I pulled myself along and grabbed onto the metal bars. The ground was coming closer and closer. Then we crashed into rocks, right in front of a green door.


	18. Chapter 18

"So Rachel, I talked to Maleficent," Hades said. I looked away from him. I was putting on new gloves; my hands were hurting from all the fighting they were having me do. I'd fought and beaten everything in Hades' Underworld. My clothes had taken a beating as well as my hands and feet but my ankle was no longer sore, though the area where Maleficent had touched me was purple and black. "She's decided you've proved yourself loyal, you haven't tried to escape since Hollow Bastion and you turned away your friends."

"Yeah, so?"

"Well," He cleared his throat, "You have a new mission." I looked up expectantly, "You've done very well in the trials and I'm not sure there's much else we can possibly test you on. So you are off to Halloween Town to see how Oogy is handling the heartless."

"Oogy?"

"He's not very powerful, he just tries to be. He's extremely intimidating though and Maleficent wants you to help him out as much as you can because Riku is still on his way back on the Captain's ship," Hades put his hand on my shoulder, making me turn and look at him, "Hope I see you again kid." He turned to walk away.

"How exactly do I get to Halloween Town?" I asked.

"Make a portal." And with that he had disappeared.

XXXXXXXXX

After an hour of figuring out how the portal worked and making sure I could do it without leaving a limb behind or anything I finally got the coordinates correct for Halloween Town. I'd ended up in a dark room that looked like an evil Casino. There was a huge bagman standing on one side of the room, playing with a set of die.

"Who are you?" He asked, his voice oddly creepy and deep.

"I'm here by orders of Maleficent," I said, walking around the room looking at all of his 'toys'.

"What happened to the boy?" I rubbed my finger along a sharp blade, making him twitch slightly.

"He's busy," I answered curtly.

"Well what does she want you here for?"

"She wanted me to check up on you," I smiled, really enjoying this power I had over him. "Need any help?"

"No," He answered roughly, "The little Trick-or-Treaters are off collecting a heart for me and I'm sure the brat with the keyblade isn't far behind them." I nodded still walking around and enjoying the pleasure in making him nervous.

There was a loud crash from outside. The room shook and a bit of dust floated down from the ceiling. "WHAT was that?" He asked.

"You could go find out." He hoped down from his post and walked to the door. He opened it.

"WELL! What do we have here?"


	19. Chapter 19

We smashed into the ground with enough force to match a herd of elephants. My head smacked against the metal bars and Nessa immediately landed hard on her butt, her legs unable to hold up against the force of gravity. I pressed my fingers to my head and swore under my breath.

"You okay?" She called as I heard her standing up.

"WELL! What do we have here?" A deep, slightly edgy voice said from behind us. I jerked my head around, making my vision go black. Once it was back I saw the one green door had been flung open and a huge bagman was standing in the open doorway. "OHH! Some tasty looking snacks!" He laughed menacingly.

"Ew," I complained, dropping down next to Wanessa, "What is that?"

"I have no clue," she answered.

"Ohh I'm hungry!" It came racing towards us. I put my hand forward, ready to call on my staff. Nessa was in the same position.

"HALT!" A girl called from inside. The bagman stopped at the entrance of our metal death trap. Our eyes flew up to the door. Rachel stood there, her clothes from the Coliseum were ripped up and old, her skin was grimy and pale. On her hands were ripped shreds of a white gauze wrap. Her hair was matted and ripped in some places.

"I don't think she's wearing a costume," Wanessa whispered. I shook my head.

"Oogy," She said, walking down the stone steps slowly, "You really shouldn't eat people. It's disgusting. Meat too for that matter." I almost laughed. I heard a small giggle escape Nessa's mouth.

"RACHEL!" I yelled, stepping forward. She looked at me for a moment and then suddenly recognition hit her eyes.

"MEGGAN! NESSA!" She ran towards us and wrapped her arms around us.

"WHAT? More of Maleficent's lackeys?" Oogy asked. I turned around.

"No," Rachel muttered, looking at her feet, she still only had socks. "I'm the only one." She turned back to us, "But listen. Maleficent's offered me a power to get us home!" She said excitedly.

"Rachel," Nessa muttered, taking her hand, "We are looking with a boy name Sora and men of the King. He knows another way to get us home. One that doesn't involve…uh."

"Involve what?" She looked at us curiously.

"What are you doing little girl? I can hear the brat with the keyblade runnin' about upstairs," Oogy interrupted.

"Be quiet!" She snapped, "Involve what?" her smile had faded.

"Darkness," I said sharply. Her dark brown eyes flew to mine. She removed her hand from Nessa's hand.

"Oh I see," She took a step back.

"Rachel wait!" I stepped after her but she was walking out of the cage.

"No, I understand," She said, only loud enough for us to hear, "You're jealous that she offered me the power and not you!"

"That's not it at all!" Nessa yelled. She stood in the doorway, Oogy was already back inside.

"Get out of here. I can control Oogy, but he can't control his heartless." With that she disappeared into the room and the door slammed shut behind her. I was so frustrated that a fireball swirled over my head and smashed into the door, doing absolutely no damage.

"Let's go."

"Where?" I asked.

"Head Honchos. We have got to get Rachel away from them!"


	20. Chapter 20

I leaned back against the door and let out a slow breath. Oogy was standing back on his platform. I gritted my teeth and walked across the floor.

"Listen Oogy," I said putting a hand behind my back, pulling at the darkness. "I've got a proposition for you." He looked interested, "I need to get back to Hollow Bastion, but I'm supposed to help you defeat the keyblade bearer. So here's the deal. I'm going to leave a few heartless in your charge, they can help you out."

"Go ahead and go," He answered, "I don't need any help." I shrugged but pulled at the heartless I could feel waiting on the edge.

"A parting gift then." I pulled some mummy and flying heartless from the darkness and assigned them posts around the room and sent a few more up into the tree house. Once they were out and attacking Sora I left the casino room. I could see Meggan and Wanessa off in the distance. It hurt my eyes to look directly at Wanessa, but Meggan seemed to be a blur. I rolled my shoulders and put out my hand.

XXXXXXXXXX

"So Oogy was defeated easily?" Maleficent asked. I nodded solemnly.

"I tried to help, but honestly he wouldn't accept it." She looked at me, her eyes half lidded.

"Well, you have obviously proved yourself loyal. I wonder if you would be willing to join Riku on Captain Hook's ship. He is, of course, carrying precious cargo and cannot for a moment be delayed."

"What kind of cargo?"

"Follow me." She stood up and led me along a corridor. We passed through several hallways and rode a lift to a lower floor. When she stopped we were standing in a large throne room. On the sides of the walls there were six pods, each with a sleeping girl inside of them. The split stairs led up around a pillar to a large, heart shaped ring. Behind it there was only a blank stonewall. "These are the seven maidens of the purist heart. We call them The Princesses of Heart. Gather them together and a door will open to the heart of all worlds. Within lies untold wisdom. A way to get you and your friends home surely lies within."

"There are only six here," I said observantly, "What of the seventh?"

"She is aboard Captain Hook's ship under Riku's protection as we speak," She explained, "I hope you will go and assist him. For soon I feel the keyblade bearer and his friends will be intercepting the ship."

"Yeah, I'll go." She smiled.

"Good, here is the portal, go ahead and step through. If anything happens, make sure Riku gets the Princess out of there. Use the term, 'Abandon Ship." I nodded and stepped through the portal.

I came out in a room with plush carpeted floors, a large wooden desk, and windows showing the space around us. I hadn't seen space before. There was muttering in the hallway outside the door. I stood and faced it. The door was pushed open.

Riku stood there, his hair more silver than the last time I'd seen him. After he'd walked into the room he looked up and saw me standing there. His jaw dropped and he gawked for a moment. Then he composed himself.

"You look awful."

"Thanks. Its nice to see you again too," I walked away from him, examining the maps on the walls now.

"So they let you out of the Coliseum?" I nodded. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to help you."

"I don't need any help."

"Sure." I could hear him let off a little growl. I tilted down my head and hid my grin behind my hair. "I'm just supposed to help you watch over your friend."

"Kairi."

"Right!" I turned to face him. "So where is she at?" He put his face down.

"What?" I asked, taking a step closer.

"Sit down." I sat down at the desk, putting my feet up on it and leaning up against the wall. "You know Sora?"

"The kid with the spiky, brown hair and a key?"

"Yes. Well he, Kairi, and I used to be great friends. But lately, Sora's been running around just showing off the keyblade while I've been working hard to find Kairi. So now that I have her she's had her heart stolen by the heartless. If I help Maleficent and Ansem they promised a way to find Kairi's heart once we have Kingdom Hearts." I nodded, remembering all this from Maleficent's speech earlier. "So I'll get Kairi back no matter what."

"Well that's a good plan and all," I said, feeling a slight connection with Riku. "But since Sora needs the key to lock the doors to the heart of a world, wouldn't you technically need a key to open this door to darkness, and then need it again for Kingdom Hearts?" Riku stopped pacing and looked at me.

"That's a good-"

"ROYAL GUMMY SHIP PORT SIDE!" Someone yelled from above. A tall man with long, curly, black hair raced through the room, followed closely by a short man.

"Riku the time has come!" He exclaimed, then he looked at me. "Who is this?"

"I'm Rachel, I'm here to assist Riku." He nodded slowly.

"Well here they come." He walked out on deck.

"Rachel," Riku grabbed my hand before I walked out on the deck, "Go down below, in one of the rooms you'll find two girls. One will be asleep. I need you to go in the room and watch them. If Sora even comes near the room get them out and bring them here."


	21. Chapter 21

Wanessa and Sora were still combing through the details of the battle with Oogy. How after they'd defeated him he became one with the tree house and began to attack us. Ness and I had seen this happening and rushed back to find purple spots of darkness everywhere. We destroyed them and sent Oogy into oblivion.

"And that upper slash you did on the spot under the lamp!" Nessa exclaimed, "THAT WAS AMAZING." Sora stood up and bowed. I laughed.

"Look at that," Goofy said from the front of the ship.

"What is it?" Sora asked, after rushing up from the sitting area. Goofy shrugged.

"It's pulling us in!" Donald cried. The entire ship rocked, like we'd been hit with a sonic boom. Then it started to fly towards the ship, all the power went out.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Didn't think you'd come Sora. Good to see you again."

"Where are Donald and Goofy?" I started to stir, the first thing I noticed was that the floor seemed unstable and continuously rocked from one side to the other.

"Are they that important to you? More important than old friends? Instead of worrying about them, you should be asking about her." I opened my eyes and saw a red haired girl sitting on the deck above us, next to Riku. I squinted my eyes closed again and tried to get the strength to stand up.

"KAIRI!" Sora yelled.

"That's right. While you were off goofing around, I finally found her," Riku said. Sora jumped up and started to run forward. A very tall man stopped him with long curly black hair in a red coat and a hook for a hand.

"Not so fast! No shenanigans aboard this vessel boy," The man I took to be captain roared.

"Riku, why are you siding with the heartless?" Sora asked from where he stood.

"The heartless obey me now, Sora. Now I have nothing to fear,"

"You're stupid! Sooner or later they'll swallow you're heart!" I pushed up against the restraints. I stood up, wobbling, my legs not used to the rocking of the ship. I looked around, Nessa was still laying on the ground.

"Not a chance, my hearts too strong."

"Riku…" Sora reached forward with his hand, but the captain threatened with his sword again. I eyed him cautiously.

"I've picked up a few other tricks as well. Like this for instance," Riku raised his hand. A shadow, looking exactly like Sora, minus the features rose up from the ground and became a moving heartless. "You can go see your friends now," A hatch opened up beneath Sora and he disappeared into the ship. "Let's get underway already. And keep Sora away from Kairi until we're ready to land." He turned to go.

"HEY YOU!" I yelled, my body finally getting used to the rocking. Riku stopped and turned, "Where is Rachel? You've gotten away without answering me so far," I raised my staff and pointed it directly at him, "but if you don't answer me this time I am going to blow your beautiful silver hair into gray ashes." He smirked at me and I growled, his smile disappeared.

"If you join Sora I'm sure you'll find her, if you actually care enough to be her friend," He turned and walked away. The hatch through which Sora had dropped was still open. I looked at Nessa, who was now sitting up.

"Let's go," I jumped into the hatch and Nessa jumped down after me. We landed in a small room with hammocks on the wall. "What the hell?" I muttered, no one was in here. "Great they've already escaped."

"At least the doors already unlocked then," Nessa said, opening a door. I smiled.

"At least." We walked out into the middle of the ship. There were supports holding it up and several smaller rooms. There was some munny and green health orbs lying on the ground. "Okay… so they already came this way."

"Where do you think Rach would be?" Nessa asked. I looked around. There was a door one level up that was guarded by a heartless that Sora seemed to have missed.

"That one!" I pointed. I pulled down the ladder with Gravira; the heartless didn't even shake when Nessa blasted through him with her shield. "That was too easy," I said suspiciously.

"Then that was a decoy."

"OH STOP COMPLAINING AND FOLLOW ME!" Both of our heads snapped up in the direction of the voice. We saw Rachel walking across one of the platforms. Two heartless dressed as pirates carried the redheaded Kairi we'd seen earlier. Rachel was dragging another girl, who was in a blue nightgown behind her.

"Unhand me at once!" She smacked at Rachel's hand but Rach didn't even flinch. Instead she dragged the girl with her as she jumped down to our level of the ship.

"Shit!" Nessa swore. She grabbed my wrist and dragged me behind a stack of barrels.

"Why are we hiding? We could save those girls and Rachel."

"Don't you see Meg?" Nessa asked me. "Rachel's pretty much possessed. Maybe not in the witch with toads who-ha, but in the sense that she is possessed with power. She wants it so bad she's doing whatever she can to get it and she's not going to listen to us!"

Rachel's procession moved into the room that we had just stood in front of. She slammed the door shut behind her. We raced forward and pressed our ears against the door.

"Sora reached the room," She said. We could still hear Wendy smacking her arm, trying to break free.

"Thank you," Captain Hook said. "Peter-Pan is with them and your partner says that Wendy's not one of the chosen ones, is this true?" We couldn't hear Rachel's answer. "And after all the trouble of capturing her, this is ridiculous!" A chair scrapped on the floor. "Well I'll be on the deck."

The door opened and closed. The struggling girl had gone with the Captain. So it was just Rachel and Riku in there. "Ready?" I mouthed to Nessa, she nodded. Just as we were about to open the door we heard the deck door creak open again.

Riku came in the room. Suddenly Sora was behind us. He pushed open the door and ran in. For a second all we saw was Rachel raising her hand, opening a portal of darkness. Riku was carrying the girl.

"RIKU WAIT!" Sora yelled.

"RACHEL STOP!" I screamed. Lunging into the room. Riku disappeared into the portal. Rachel smirked and I could almost feel the darkness seeping out of her to contaminate the air. She slowly dissipated into the portal, which swirled into itself and was gone. A shadow lifted up from under the door and Sora was faced with his own shadow.


	22. Chapter 22

Once we were through the portal Riku was kneeling on the ground, completely out of breath. The Princess had slipped out of his arms and her head almost crashed to the floor but I leapt forward to catch it.

"Pay attention!" I yelled. He just sort of smiled at me.

"It was reckless to bring her here without at least a vessel. Remember relying to heavily on the dark powers could cost you your heart," Maleficent said. She appeared from the darkness. I looked at her.

"He didn't even call up the portal, I did," I explained. Maleficent nodded. "Well I'll just go put her in a safe place." Riku stood up to help, but just as he did a loud roar echoed from the outside, he looked at me first. "Don't worry I'll take good care of her." He smiled a thank you to me.

"A castaway. Though his world perished his heart did not. When we took the Princess from his castle, he apparently followed through sheer force of will. But fear not, no harm will come to you. He is no match for your power," Maleficent explained, her voice fading as I walked further away from them.

"My power?"

"Yes the untapped power that lies within you. Now child its time to awaken that power and realize your full potential!" A flash of green light exploded around me and lit up the tunnel. I fumed silently, the girl in my arms was as light as a feather, and maybe it was the soul that weighed down the body so much.

"Or it is the power that resides within you that gives you strength." I stopped. The deep voice was so familiar, like I'd heard it before in a dream.

"What power?" I asked.

"Have you not noticed?" He stepped into my vision range. He was in a cloak with the hood pulled up, covering his face. "Maleficent has only gifted you once and yet you are able to pull up portals and control the heartless as if you have been doing this since you were born." I had noticed that, but ignored it, figuring Maleficent had just been willing to grant me more power.

"Maleficent's powers are limited, she is only a puppet of the darkness and if she continues to waste her powers it will be her demise," He said, "You, though, have unlimited access to the darkness for a reason completely unknown to me. Help me find a way into Riku's heart and I will help you discover a way to unleash that power to the full potential."

"How do I find Riku's desire?" I asked.

"Find a way, for I have tried on many occasions to get him to open himself to me, bring him here when you have discovered what he truly wants." I nodded and took off running with the Princess. I put her in the seventh pod and sealed it shut. Then I raced to the lift and rose up to Riku's quarters.

XXXXXXXXXXX

He was just exiting his room, his head down and looking at the floor. I slowed to a walk and immediately slowed my breathing.

"Riku," I said slowly. He looked up, his eyes full of surprise. I hadn't seen myself in a few days and I had no idea what I looked like, even so, I think it was rather striking.

"R-Rachel," He stuttered. "Make it quick I have to go see to that beast."

"He can wait," I said, walking closer to him, he took in a deep breath, "What do you desire Riku?" I whispered, getting close to his ear. He was silent for a moment.

"The power to protect my friends," He answered quickly. I leaned back and looked into his green eyes. He looked down and then his eyes flew back up, "To be stronger than Sora."

"Ansem can give you that," I said, but he immediately shook his head.

"Ansem has already tried to get me to take that deal, if I do I don't know what will happen."

"You will be stronger!" He slid out from between the wall and me. He shook his head. I ground my teeth and made a portal.


	23. Chapter 23

"Alright. I can take the pirate ship and whale in space. I can even tolerate the fact that Goofy is a dog, but I can't accept that this water is running up!" Wanessa yelled. She let out a loud scream afterwards and it echoed all around us. She then took a deep breath and composed herself. "Not to mention the fact that Sora has gone gallivanting ahead only to have the keyblade taken away from him and to team up with a beast!"

"Donald and Goofy also abandoned him," I chimed in.

"THAT TOO!" she shouted. I just looked at her sadly. We had watched as Riku had taken the keyblade from Sora, changing the fates of the world as well as our own. Sora without the keyblade was just a kind hearted and determined boy, but he didn't have the power to get to the King.

I was a little scared. Wanessa hardly ever had tantrums and only did when she was scared or has realized that we are totally screwed. I just walked up and gave her a hug. "Come on, since Riku's here and the heartless are pretty much swarming everywhere I believe we are at the head honchos house." We started forward.

"MEGGAN! NESSA!" We both looked up. Rachel was standing at the top platform waving happily to us. We looked at each other and then back at her. I started running and reached her first. I wrapped my arms around her. Except for being dirty and a little run down looking she was our Rachel.

"RACHEL! You're okay." She nodded happily. Once I let go she reached out to hug Nessa.

"What's been going on?" Nessa asked. Rachel smiled sheepishly.

"I'm sorry about all that stuff before. Especially attacking you at the Coliseum I didn't want to but they were threatening me with an undetermined amount of time in the Underworld and Maleficent promised a way home if I helped her out. So I did," She explained. "I realize it seemed like I abandoned you guys but it was worth it! I have a way home for us. Follow me!" She raised her hand and a portal rose up from the ground. Darkness seeping from it. I hesitated and Nessa didn't bother to move. As I took a step forward she grabbed my hand and stopped me.

"Rachel…" She said slowly.

"What?" She asked. "We have to go through here. Ansem's going to get us home!"

"We can't go through there," Nessa answered, using her stern but soft voice. Rachel's face went from curious to deeply hurt.

"Why not?" This time Nessa faltered.

"Because we can't trust the darkness! There's too many unknown things lurking in it and we don't know what will happen once this Ansem sends us home. What if it's a plot to steal our hearts and find a way to Kingdom Hearts? What if he's using you Rachel?" I asked, my voice raising. The hurt in Rachel's face turned to rage. "Rachel all we want to do is help you and once we find the King we'll go home."

"You don't want to help me! You want to destroy me! You're jealous of my power!" She screamed. Rage twisted her face into an ugly thing. I took a step closer. The darkness in the portal grew and Rachel turned towards it.

"I will get us home! You'll see!" She jumped through and disappeared.

"Well…SHIT!" I screamed. I kicked a rock off the side of the platform. It went flying across the water and smacked into a heartless, destroying it instantly. Nessa sat, thinking hard. "What now?" After a brief pause;

"We release her from whatever she's under, or figure out what's fueling her and destroy it," she said.

"Alright lets go." We rode the lift to the castle. It was absolutely huge. The doors were nearly thirty feet tall and we could tell by the dark residue Sora and the Beast had already been in this direction. We followed them into a chamber with several doors and a fountain at the foot of two spiraling stairs.


	24. Chapter 24

I ran through the dark halls to Ansem's office as quickly as I could. I heard Riku and Sora fighting the in main chamber and almost stopped to give Riku a boost but I need to speak with Ansem immediately.

I found his room and didn't knock. When I banged the door open he turned, looking surprised for only a moment.

"Yes Rachel?" He asked. I walked right up to him.

"Make me more powerful! NOW! Give me a way home!" I demanded. He smiled evilly, but I did not notice. He put one hand on my shoulder and I felt more darkness entering me. Clouding my mind.

It felt as if another presence was invading my mind. Another set of feelings and emotions.

"What are you doing?" I asked, but my voice was suddenly drowned out and replaced with a deeper, more seductive and empowering voice. Whoever it was laughed deeply.

"Relax my dear, soon enough we'll be together," He said, "When Kingdom Hearts is open." I tried to remove myself from his grip but already the other mind in me was overpowering me. What had I done?

"Stop!" I forced the words out. He ignored me. HELP!


	25. Chapter 25

"Okay, this is ridiculous!" I said. "We're lost in a library." The shelves went all the way to the ceiling and we had been running for what felt like hours through the twisting and maze-like shelves. Nessa was carrying a giant green book and we were searching for the spot where it would go.

"RIGHT THERE!" She yelled. We raced to the spot and shoved the book in the slot. The walls shook violently and the shelf slid into the wall and on the other side a set of stairs appeared. "FINALLY!" We yelled in unison. Together we raced up the stairs. When we reached the top there was no door.

I spun in a circle, examining the shelves. "PURPLE BOOK!" I screamed. We raced down the stairs again and searched the shelves for a large purple book.

"GOT IT!" Nessa screamed. She was already at the top, placing the book on the shelf when I huffed up next to her and plopped my butt on the desk. A shelf moved into the wall, revealing a wooden door. "Alright," She said, sitting on the desk next to me. "We'll take a break, we don't know what is behind that door."

"What do you think happened to Sora?" I asked.

"Didn't you see? When we ran past him in that room he had the keyblade and Donald and Goofy were with him again," She explained.

"Good," I smiled with relief. I closed my eyes for a moment and my breath came back to me. I raised my staff. "CURE!" Both of us were cured instantly and I felt refreshed. "Man I love this thing." Nessa laughed.

"I wonder if we'll still have the power when we get home." Nessa muttered. I shrugged.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"WHY?" Riku asked to no one, "IT WAS MINE!"

"Know this," Ansem answered him, "The heart that is strong and true shall win the keyblade."

"What? You're saying my heart's weaker than his?"

"For that instant it was. However you can become stronger. You showed no fear in stepping through the door to darkness. It held no terror for you. Plunge deeper into the darkness and your heart will grow even stronger."

"What should I do?" Riku asked timidly.

"It's really quite simple. Open yourself to the darkness. That is all. Let your heart, your being, become darkness itself."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Alright. This has been a long enough break." I jumped up from the desk. We started walking forward. We reached the top of the rocks when an evil laugh came from all around us.

We jumped together, our backs touching, both of us looking in every direction for the source of the laugh.

"WHO'S THERE?" I yelled, holding my staff out, a snake like flame coiling at the tip.

"I am." A figure floated down slowly from a column and landed across the stone platform at us. The dark hair swirled around a pale and dirty face. The clothes were ripped shreds that barely covered the figures arms. A dark aura surrounded it. It was human, I think. Its dark eyes looked up and the lips turned into a bitter smile. "Don't your recognize me?" I shook my head. The figure before us flashed into a beautiful but disastrous monster at the same time. "Your dear friend Rachel, already forgotten by her friends." I was speechless. I could see the features of our friend behind the monster, but it wasn't her. That wasn't her soul.

"YOU'RE NOT RACHEL!" Wanessa yelled. She held up her shield, it sparked a brighter light than ever before. The creature that called itself Rachel shielded its eyes and let out a low whimper.

"I am Rachel," it said, suddenly changing from a cruel voice to pain. "HELP!" Suddenly the face changed again and became pure rage. The sword that Rachel had carried from the beginning of our adventure now seemed different. It had spikes and swirls of darkness surrounding it and when the tip was pointed at Nessa and I, nervousness filled the pit of my stomach. Nervousness I hadn't felt since we first arrived here and fought.

I raised my staff and Nessa raised her sword in defense. "RACHEL COME BACK FROM THE DARK!" I yelled. "FIGHT IT!"

"SHUT UP!" The monster screeched. It lunged forward, running straight for me. I raised my staff and deflected the blow. Sparks rose from our weapons and she jumped back, this time aiming for Wanessa. The light from Nessa's shield only deflected her slightly. With another snarl she jumped back and sent a blast of darkness at us. Nessa raised her shield and protected us from the crushing wave. When we looked she was gone. But another evil laugh sounded from the center of the room. She stood on the top of a bookshelf laughing. Her sword was in the air again. She swung down and another wave rolled towards us. I could feel the tug of the darkness on my heart.

Nessa jumped in front of the wave again and sent it swirling in ever direction. When she ducked down I leapt over her shoulders and sent two balls of fire roaring at Rachel. She easily jumped to the next bookshelf. I aimed ahead of her but just as she was about to leap in front of the fire she changed direction and landed easily on the balcony, only a few feet in front of us. She smirked. I lunged forward, the tip of my staff becoming sharp.

She jumped down from the rail and waited, her sword in a defensive angle. My staff crashed around against it, surrounded in a white-hot flame. The sparks floated into the nearest bookshelf and they caught fire. Nessa rushed forward and attacked Rachel from the other side. She fended us off easily, her moves quick and flowing. When I was close to slicing her she seemed to become the darkness herself and split when the blade almost hit.

When Nessa and I both backed and then ran straight for her she flipped gracefully over the balcony and landed on her feet on the floor below us. She smiled up. I screamed in frustration, sending huge balls of fire down after her. She smacked them aside with her blade, her skin only getting red with the heat. The bookshelves around her were all aflame, smoke rose to the top of the room and choked Nessa and I. We looked at each other and nodded. I jumped off the edge of the balcony and landed directly in front of her.

I sent a hundred shards of ice at her. She couldn't doge all of the shards and a few sliced her skin. Blood dripped from the wounds. She wasn't even fazed. She wasted no time in lunging at me with her sword. I parried her blows, remembering everything Yuffie, Leon, and Merlin had taught me. I could see Wanessa sneaking up behind her but wouldn't let her notice my noticing. I kept her back to Nessa. While she worked at pushing my back into the bookshelf Nessa was pulling the light into her shield and charging up. The fire made the room hot and our breath was labored. Sweat was beaded on my face and as I kept Rachel's blows from destroying me.

Nessa was fully charged and by the time Rachel noticed her coming up behind her, it was too late. She a look at the charging Nessa, then back at me. I smirked, returning her evil sneer. She growled but turned her attention to Nessa. I pulled up another ice attack and when Nessa smashed into her she screamed with in pain, her skin blackening against the light, I released the ice.


	26. Chapter 26

I screamed in pain. My back was sliced in a million different places and the sweat rolling into the cuts burned terribly. But my front. My front was the worst. Where Nessa had plowed into me my skin was burnt black. My sword clattered to the ground and Nessa immediately kicked it out of my reach. I shuddered as the horrible woman once again took my body.

"FOOLS!" she shouted, "Do you honestly think I can be defeated even without my sword?" I couldn't see the looks on Meg and Nessa's faces but I was in a cloud of darkness. The woman let out a shriek and a sharp pain made me nauseous. "NO! I WON'T LEAVE!"

I wanted her out. She had to leave. I stood up in the darkness and changed direction. I could see light. I could feel it. I wanted it. I shot up, up and up. I could feel her resisting but with my body weakened she didn't have much of a chance. "GET OUT!" I screamed.

I could see. The green floor of the library, the deep wood walls, and the millions of books. I could feel my hands gripping the sides of my head and my knees, sore from being on the floor. I looked up. Meg and Nessa were staring at me cautiously, their weapons raised.

"You guys! Its me!" I made to stand up. "I'm so sorry!" Meggan took a step towards me, but Nessa grabbed her arm and pulled her back. I stayed on my knees.

"How do we know you're not going to just attack us again?" Nessa asked. I looked up at her, lost for words.

"I made a mistake! I didn't know that's what he was planning!" I stood up this time. Nessa made for my sword and grabbed it. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know!"

"Of course not," Meg said smartly, "You just thought it would be okay to abandon your friends and then attack them!"

"No…"

"No we get it!" They started to walk up the stairs.

"W-wait!" I tried to stand up but my legs were so tired. My arms were covered in scorch marks and I had a disgusting metallic taste in my mouth. They were on the balcony above me.

"Don't Rachel," Nessa said. She threw my sword over the edge. "Find us when you're ready to tell the truth." It clattered to the ground and they slammed through the door upstairs. I touched my hand to my mouth and pulled it away. There was blood.


	27. Chapter 27

-1 "So we're leaving her behind why?" I asked Nessa as soon as we passed through the door. She looked shaken and nervous.

"The darkness hasn't left her all the way."

"So wouldn't that make our presence crucial? So we can fight it off?"

"She has to do it herself," Nessa said firmly. "If she doesn't shun that other person inside of her then she'll never be herself again." I sighed.

"So now what?"

"We catch up to Sora I guess. We've got to get to the king." Nessa started to walk to the door that we'd seen Sora run through earlier. There were a few heartless, out of those that attacked us, that ignored us completely. In fact they moved towards the library door.

"Nessa, I think the heartless are going to Rachel." I panicked. "What if they eat her heart?"

"She'll be okay." Nessa said sternly, making me look at the door one more time before we stepped into the hallway that wound down into the darkness.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So I see the path has emerged at last." A deep voice said from Riku's body.

"Yes the keyhole to darkness," Maleficent answered.

"Unlock it and the heartless will overrun this world," he cautioned.

"What do I care? The darkness holds no power over me. I will use its power to rule all worlds."

"Such confidence." A dark keyblade appeared in his hands. He pointed it at the keyhole, but nothing happened.

"Oh! Impossible! The Princesses of heart are all here!" Maleficent cried, "It must be her."

"Without her heart, she will never be able to release her power," Riku said, looking at the girl lying in her container.

"The king's fools are here. I'll deal with them, myself. You stay here and guard the Princesses." She left the room. Riku raised his hand and several heartless slipped across the floor and rose up before him, "Bring Rachel to me."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Alright. This castle did not look this huge when we were flying here!" Nessa said as we climbed down a set of stairs. Up ahead we could hear fighting taking place. There was a flash of green magic shooting up the stairs. We ducked just as it reached us and it sizzled past us. Leaving a disgusting smell in the air.

"I think we're getting closer," I whispered. Sora was shouting for Donald to come heal him while we could hear the sound of his keyblade smacking against stone. Maleficent's evil laugh, which was curiously similar to the one that had come from Rachel earlier, echoed around the chamber. "Want to help?" Nessa nodded. We charged forward. Knocking aside giant heartless as we ran towards the center.

"HEY SORA!" Nessa and I called.

"HEY!" He called, then jumped up and smacked the bottom of the stone platform again. Maleficent's platform shook and then gave us only a few seconds to retreat before it crashed to the ground.


	28. Chapter 28

I tried to push myself up with little success. My knees were burning with the effort of keeping myself up but I ignored the pain. I leaned forward and put my weight on my hands before getting my feet underneath me. I stood and swayed. I could feel heartless seeping underneath the door and crawling up the walls towards me. A large body came up to me.

None of them moved to attack me. They looked at me cautiously and when I started coughing violently some of them backed up. I could feel that woman swimming at the edge of my mind. She was angry and I felt it. I wanted her gone. When I pulled the hand away from my mouth, blood was spattered on it. I wiped it on my clothes and tried to stand up. My knees gave way and I collapsed on the ground.

The large body squatted down and picked me up gently in its huge arms. Within seconds my host of heartless were carrying me through the maze-like hallways of the castle. I closed my eyes for what felt like a second, but when I opened them I was on the ground with Riku standing over me.

"Good morning," He muttered. Another voice was mixing with his. It had the same effect as hearing two televisions on opposite sides of you playing the same thing. I looked up at him bewildered. "How are you feeling?" I just stared at him. "Not well?" I blinked. "It's a disgrace, you know, to have you loose in such an awful way. You held up good. I thought they were going to stab your heart in the end. After all, it is gone isn't it?"

I got my legs underneath me and tried to push up with my hands. The dry sweat on my skin creased and broke apart. I got to my feet and swayed slightly. The large body from earlier was gone. I caught myself.

"Where's Maleficent?" I asked, my voice raspy and broken.

"She is in the dungeons, fighting Sora and his friends," He answered. I didn't feel like I was talking to Riku. When I spoke to him he cared about his friend, you could tell he missed Sora and wanted him back. He walked over to Kairi's, she lay motionless in her pod. "It's a curious thing, isn't it?" He said, looking at her almost fondly.

"What is?" I asked, now trusting my legs to move me next to him. Why he hadn't healed me yet, I didn't know.

"How the body can live on in a perfectly relaxed way, not caring what will happen to it, while the heart that rules the body is off in great peril. This body in particular. It was not devoured by the heartless, just the heart. Unlike other victims, this body was left. It's curious." I only nodded in response. Kairi looked as if she was just enjoying a peaceful sleep.

A loud crash alerted me to life that was going on in other parts of the castle. Riku, or the possessed Riku, immediately disappeared. I tried to push Kairi's pod out of the middle of the room.


	29. Chapter 29

Maleficent's rock crashed into the ground and crumbled into a million pieces. They went flying outward and hit all the heartless she'd summoned. They disappeared into black puffs of smoke. I ducked down but one chunk of rock hit me in the arm.

"OWWW!" I yelped. There was an audible crack. I didn't want to look down at my arm but I did anyway. There was a big red splotch of skin where the rock had hit but on the opposite side of my arm I could see the bone poking against the skin. "FUCK!" I whimpered, I turned my head and tried to push the image down but it wasn't any use. I threw up.

"Meg!" Nessa came running up to me. She put her shield on the ground in front of us standing erect. A white orb suddenly rose up and encased us.

"How did you learn to do that?" I asked in amazement.

"I don't remember. But anyway, what happened?" She went to touch my arm but I jerked it away, then wincing in the pain. She moved towards me but noticed the small pile of throw up next to me. "Ew, that's disgusting."

"Well then don't look at it!" I shot back. She just laughed.

"Let me see."

"No!"

There was a loud scream from Maleficent and suddenly the shield around us disappeared. I looked out and Sora, Donald and Goofy were all looking towards a purplish orb floating near the edge of one of the walls. Then Sora turned around.

"What happened?" He asked, running over to us. I just shook my head.

"I think she broke her arm," Nessa said. Sora looked at the ground next to us.

"Ew that's disgusting," He pointed out the obvious. I just sighed, sounding as exasperated as I possible could.

"ANYWAY!" I said loudly. Standing up and ignoring the shooting pain in my arm. "Shouldn't we get through that portal over there and finish of Maleficent?" Sora nodded seriously but Nessa just looked at me in her concerned motherly way.

"Now Meg you've just broken your arm, your right arm at that and you're not ambidextrous are you?" She pointed out the obvious. I hated that. I just shrugged one shoulder, not wanting to move the other.

"What happened?" Donald asked. He and Goofy had just arrived at the scene of my demise.

"She broke her arm," Nessa answered for me.

"Oh-" Goofy started sympathetically. I threw up my left arm in annoyance.

"I'm fine. I don't see what all the fuss is about!" "Oh Meg, shut up you sound like Rachel." There was a silence for a moment.

"I can heal broken arms," Donald announced.

"Fantastic, do it now." I held my arm out to him. He looked at Nessa then back at me and raised his staff.

The green light was blinding but in seconds my arm was starting to feel much better. When it faded away everyone looked at my arm. I gasped.

"DONALD WHAT DID YOU DO?" Sora yelled. He bonked Donald on the head. I could feel all the blood draining from my face.

"Well. That complicates things a bit," Nessa muttered.

"A bit? A BIT!" I screeched. "LOOK AT MY ARM!" And indeed everyone was looking at my arm. It was a crooked mess. Donald had healed the bones but not set them. They still stuck out, pushing very hard on the skin.

With the most dignity I could muster I stood up and walked to the portal.

"Do you need some help?" Riku was up ahead. Maleficent was bent over and breathing heavily. She looked like she was done for.

"RIKU!" Sora yelled. He sped past the rest of us and stopped right before Riku. Something didn't look right. He was in a completely different outfit and he looked just like a heartless. The only thing that was normal about him was his silver hair, but his eyes were just off on the shade. Too bright to be natural.

"Is that-?" Donald started.

"Yes. A Keyblade," he answered. Sure enough in his hands was a Keyblade with an intricate red hilt with a black blade that seemed to suck up the light around it. "But unlike yours this Keyblade has the power to unlock people's hearts. Allow me to demonstrate." With lightening fast speed his Keyblade was deeply lodged in Maleficent's chest. "Behold."

"What-" Maleficent started.

"Now open your heart! Surrender it to the Darkness. Become the darkness itself."

With the last four words Riku had disappeared and we were left facing Maleficent. She was studying her arms and legs. Darkness swarmed out from under her cloak and she was definitely getting larger.

"Steady. Steady." Nessa muttered. We were all slowly stepping back. Within a few moments. Maleficent's head was nearly at the ceiling and she no longer resembled herself. She was a large black dragon with scales reflecting the room all around us. The thin membrane on her wings was the same shade of purple that had been on her robes. A loud laugh that came from the evil smile in the dragons face destroyed the silence in the room. Suddenly she was slamming her legs down onto the ground and a shockwave came rumbling towards us.

We leapt over the shockwave and as soon as she was on the ground she immediately opened her jaws as wide as they would and sent a green flame to all corners of the room. It reflected eerily in her scales. I clutched my staff tightly with my left hand and raced towards her burning mouth followed by Donald. Nessa, Sora and Goofy charged towards the dragons stomach. With ice attacks and stabbing we fought Maleficent again.

"MEG! DONALD! WHEN I SAY GO, SEND THE BIGGEST ICE ATTACK YOU CAN AT HER MOUTH!" I nodded in response. Suddenly Sora was up on her back and moving between the two wings. Goofy and Nessa were throwing their shields up at her soft underbelly. Then Sora was at the base of her neck, she lowered her head. "GO!"

I thought as many cold thoughts as I could think of. I thought of the ice and how it would be so cold it burned. My staff was shaking and I had to grab it with two hands. In one second all the ice was shooting out. It hit Maleficent's teeth on the left side and gummed them up, Donald having the same effect on the right. Nessa and Goofy caught their shields and slammed them down as hard as they could onto Maleficent's two front feet as she tried to rear up. Sora sent his Keyblade deep into her neck.

She roared so loudly and tried to breath the green flame out. All it did was melt some of the ice and sent a shower of water down on all our heads. She choked on her own fire and crashed on the ground.

"That was ingenious Sora," I complimented. He smiled proudly and we all stopped to look at each other. "Now what?"

"How ironic." We all whipped around. Riku was back. "She was just another puppet after all."

"What?" Donald snapped.

"The heartless were using Maleficent from the beginning. She failed to notice the darkness in her heart eating away at her. A fitting end for such a fool." He disappeared.

"What an ass hole!" I exclaimed. Sora scowled at me. "Sorry, but I mean honestly. Who says stuff like that?"

"I don't think he's himself."

"I don't care. Whoever that is, is an ass hole!"

"That's why we have to save them."

"Right. ON WARD MARCH."


	30. Chapter 30

Riku returned looking rather amused. I just looked at him, feeling very tired and withdrawn. I could feel that terrifying woman at the edge of my mind and feared that if I spoke it would be her words emitting from my mouth again. Riku took Kairi's body from her pod and carried her to the top of the stairs.

I started to follow him up and reached halfway up the stairs when I realized where we were. It was the center of the castle. Dug deep into the ground. The spiraling stairs that led to this raised platform curled up and ended up on opposite sides of the rounded platform. The golden railing sparkled in the unnatural light coming from the heart shaped hole in the wall. The colors trapped in its wonder swirled together, I felt myself dropping into awe as I looked at it once more.

_It's incredible isn't it? _I looked around for the voice. It had seemed so close. _Everything within Kingdom Hearts is wondrous and there are so many things to discover. _

I searched the room, looking up and down but the woman's voice had no body. That was when I realized she was in my head. It was that woman. I clutched my ears but could not block out her epiphany of the world waiting beyond that door, if only they could unlock the last Princess's heart.

I watched Riku put the princess down gently, but other than that small gesture he offered no kindness to her. He walked over to the door and stood in the eerie light. I shuddered. His silver hair glowing.

"Riku?" I asked. He turned to face me. "What's going to happen?"

"We're going to open Kingdom Hearts," The voice answered. "And once we do, love, you will have entire control of that body and that girl shall be lost in the darkness."

The woman was pushing to have her voice escape my lips but instead I nodded and walked slowly away. My fate had been decided when I let myself listen to Ansem. I was going to be lost to the darkness. I sat down in front of the fire, not feeling its warmth.

All I could think about was Meg and Nessa. What would they do if I disappeared. Sure they would miss me for a long while but that didn't matter. In time they would get over it and search for a way home. I was giving in. My eyes suddenly widened.

I had to stop Sora from arriving. I had to keep him away from this room.

_Is that really a good idea?_

I don't care. I thought back.

_Don't you want to go home? I promise your friends will be there. Just as you will back in your world, safe and sound._

You're lying! I thought bitterly. I jumped up and started to move for the door, the cuts on my back stung as the dried blood cracked. The burns were tight and it was hard to move my legs, but I walked as quickly as I could to the door.

_Ansem! Ansem! _The girl yelled in my head. She pushed and pushed to have her voice escape.

Stop talking you'll just make this more difficult.

_You can't do that. You can't betray us! You swore. ANSEM, ANSEM!_

I swore nothing! I ran to the door in an odd limp. She pushed harder.

"ANSEM!" She screamed from my lips. I immediately shut them, but it was too late she had drawn his attention.

"Where are you going Rachel?" He asked. I looked back and he wasn't there. I turned to the front and there he was in front of me. I crashed into him and his arms wrapped around me. "Ah Amelia. You should learn to control her better." I felt the woman's frustration.

"SHUT UP!" I screamed at them both. He just laughed, she pushed harder. Then something flashed in his eyes. I saw Riku in his eyes. His arms let go of me for a second and I took the chance to cover the rest of the distance to the door.

I looked back and saw the sweat dripping from his forehead. Then suddenly Riku's eyes were gone and just his body leapt at me. I summoned my darkness and slammed the door shut. Two large bodies stood in front of it, Ansem was pointlessly trying to push it open.

I limp/ran the rest of the way down the hall. Ignoring her.


	31. Chapter 31

The heartless were becoming thicker and more powerful ones were rising up all around us. We had to be nearing the center. As we moved deeper into the castle we heard yelling and the slam of doors but then all we could see and hear were the heartless.

Our progress was halted by a wall of large bodies. Donald and I called on our ice and sent it flying to them. They shook, a few were disposed of and I thought I saw a body behind them before more came to take their places.

"What is this?" Sora asked.

"A blockade," Goofy said. "I think they don't want us to go any further."

"That's quite obvious," I muttered.

"Meg, be nice!" Nessa said. Now the large bodies were surrounding us. There were a few dog looking guards that were huge, their armor was ridiculously large and blue. They had shields with dog faces that blew out magic. I shuddered as I dodged a blast of fire and rolled under the shield.

I laughed as I whacked its knee caps with my staff and it fell backwards. I then sent up a lightening cloud and it thundered down on several of them. The room was lit up with bright white lights and I caught of glimpse of a girl standing in front of the doorway. She looked at me, and I stared into her eyes.

A new wall of heartless blocked my view. One reached forward and knocked me back with its giant fist. I hit the opposite wall with an "oomph" and fell to the ground. I rubbed the back of my head and watched the rest of them fight while I regained my sense of stability.

Sora was fighting alongside Goofy on the right wall. They smashed the heartless right and left. Donald was off facing the main lines in the front. Nessa was all by her lonesome self on the left. Suddenly she turned around and looked at me.

"MEG GET OVER HERE!" I jumped up and ran to her. My head swimming as I did so. "Stand still please." "Why?" I asked, but she wasn't listening to me. She raised her shield and a blinding light glowed brightly from it. I had to cover my eyes. A loud scream filled the room. It sounded like it was terrified and in pain at the same time. Then with a great shake her shield slammed into the ground and it rumbled slightly.

When I looked out again all the heartless where gone. The shadow that had been coming from the doorway was even gone. The entire room was glowing with her eerie light.

"What is that?" Sora asked, coming up to us.

"It's my shield," Nessa answered.

"No. I mean that," he pointed "over there on the ground."

We all turned to see where his hand was pointing. There was a crumpled black lump in front of the door. It was laying very still.

"A heartless?" Donald suggested.

"A heartless would have died from that attack, Donald," Nessa explained.

"Well then what is it?"

I had already started walking forward. Having a sneaky suspicion of what and who it was. I was right.

She was lying on her back. Her eyes open and staring at the ceiling. She wasn't moving, save for the breath moving in and out of her chest.

"What is it?" Sora asked, coming up to examine her burnt face with me.

"It's Rachel."

"What is she doing here?" Suddenly his Keyblade was out.

"Put that away. She's not going anywhere," Nessa bonked him on the head. The Keyblade disappeared. She knelt down next to Rachel's head and placed her hand on her forehead. Rachel flinched violently, Nessa didn't move her hand.

"STOP!" Rachel screamed. "STOP!" her voice echoed loudly in the hall. "I only wanted to stop you!" She gasped out. "You can't continue on."

"Oh and I suppose that's exactly what they want isn't it?" Sora asked.

"You've only come to stop us so we can't open the door!" Donald accused. Rachel shook her head, her eyes squinted shut as if she was in pain.

"Come on guys. We're almost there." Sora jumped up and started to run for the door. Donald and Goofy followed closely behind.

"NO!" Rachel croaked, but they were gone.

"Oh that's very well Rachel," Meg muttered next to me, "I knew you weren't completely healed."

"I am." she mumbled "I am.

"No you're not. You don't want us to go through so they continue their plans of opening the door!" I exclaimed, "and now we're going to miss out on the big fight all because you decided to block our way and we're responsible for you." "If you go through then they will open the door. Sora is the key, he's always the key!" Rachel muttered. "The key." A spark of light came from Nessa's hand and she started shaking violently.

"Well this is just fantastic!" Nessa shouted. "I don't know who to trust anymore!"

"We obviously can't trust Rachel. She's got darkness eating away at her insides," I answered.

"But what if she is fighting. Why else would she try to prevent us from going in there? If what she says is true if Sora doesn't go in there they can't open the do-"

"It is I, Ansem, seeker of the darkness."

Rachel's eyes shot open.

"It's too late."


	32. Chapter 32

The darkness was growing. I could feel it in every pore of my body. Sora had gone into the darkness.

"DONALD!" Meg yelled. "GOOFY!" there was a pause. "GIRL?" she yelled. "WHERE ARE YOU GOING?"

"AWAY. GET MOVING THE HEARTLESS ARE COMING!" Donald yelled and they kept running.

"Go Kairi!" Goofy nudged the girl on.

"Kairi's awakened," I moaned, "Kingdom Hearts has been opened."

"Come on get up!" Nessa tugged on my arm. I slowly let her pull me up. I felt more like myself. The woman had been pushed back into the shadows of my mind and I could no longer hear her voice. Even with the darkness pushing in on the light in my mind. Nessa put the light back in.

"Where do we have to go?" Meg asked, looking at me.

"There is really nothing we can do," I wiped the dirt off my jeans as best I could, though they were still crusted in dirt. "I suppose we could go find your friends and see if we stay with them when the darkness overruns this world."

"What do you mean 'when the darkness overruns this world?'" Nessa gapped at me, "There's no hope?"

"None. There has been so much darkness here that it is impossible that the heart will not be eaten, unless Sora some how seals the keyhole. Which I feel that he has yet to do."

"Great!" Meg threw up her hands. "just great."

"Well they've left!" Nessa said. And indeed they were gone.

"FANTASTIC!" Meg screamed. Her voice echoed in the room. "Now we're stuck in this heartless infested stink hole and we're doomed to go down with it!" "Now did I say that?" I asked. Standing up and facing Meg. She stared at me with her mouth hanging open. "No. If we head up there is a Gummi Ship Garage with one or two of the things. I don't know how to fl-"

"I DO!" Meg raised her hand, yelling. "I CAN FLY IT!"

"Great," Nessa looked nervously over my shoulder. I turned to see what she was looking at. There was a large mass of heartless standing behind us, looking from me to them. "Can we move? With speed?"

"Sure." I lead them through the doorway and up a set of spiraling stairs. Both of them whispered nervously to each other.

"Uh, Rachel?" Nessa asked eventually. We were almost to the top.

"Hm?"

"Why are the heartless following us?"

"What?" I turned around and looked down the steps. Sure enough, all the large bodies, dark knights, shielded dogs and so on were just a few dozen yards below us. "Oh. Well I suppose they're waiting for orders."

"ORDERS?" Meg yelled. She pointed her staff at me.

"Calm down," I swatted it away. "I don't know what it is. I can still control them." "So why are we walking when we could take a portal to the top?" she asked, we rounded the last bend.

"Because the door is right here."

"Oh."

The Gummi Ship Chamber took up most of the top towers. It had Gummi Ships docked at each port.

"Okay pick a ship."

Meg picked a small black ship called Hawk III. It looked fast and durable. There was equipped with several large cannons on the outside and little laser releasers on the front.

"Alright." We climbed aboard and Meg started it up.

"Seatbelts please." She looked over her shoulders at us. I sighed loudly but clicked it on.

"Is she a good driver?" I asked Nessa. She just shrugged.

"I don't know. She's only watched Donald do it." I could feel all the blood drain out of my face.

"Hold on!"

The ship lifted off the ground and was suddenly high in the air. It took a few seconds for my stomach to catch up and when it did I felt sick. Through the window I could see the launch pad flying by, then we were surrounded by stars.

After a long time we reached this world. It was a really large town with misshapen buildings and many different people.

"Where are we?"

"Traverse Town."

"Ohhh-kay." I looked all around us, amazed. "Hey look its your Sora friend." I pointed over to the little overhang behind the Items Shop. The spiky-haired kid had disappeared behind the wall.

"FOLLOW HIM!" Meg yelled. We started to run after him. We jumped up from a box and landed on the second level of the district we were in. We turned down the little alley and followed him through the break in the wooden boards. We ran into a very tall stack of boxes.

"I can't jump that high," Nessa said, looking up to the top. Meg was looking the same.

"We didn't get the high jump ability," Meg said, sounding rather remorseful.

"Well that sucks," I muttered. They both glared at me. "Sorry." I thought about it for a moment and reached out with my mind for the darkness: It came to me readily. "I can get us around it." Then I pulled up the portal.

"Rach, I don't know. We could just go around…" Meg suggested.

"Oh don't be such a baby," I egged her on.

"I'm not being a baby."

"Yes you are."

"No! I'm not."

"Then go through." She paused.

"You first." I sighed, but obliged.


	33. Chapter 33

I followed Rachel, but true to her word she led us to the other side of the blocks and into the alley behind the hotel.

We caught up to Sora just as he was headed underground to have a meeting with some people. I met several people including: Leon, Cloud, Yuffie, Cid, Aerith and Merlin.

"We need to get out there and fight back against the heartless before they overrun that world!" Leon stated, being extremely ominous.

"Well yeah," Sora muttered.

"That's our home Sora!"

"Okay, okay." Sora held up his hands in defense. "So we have to go back?"

"I don't like ye facin' all that danger," Sid muttered. Rachel rolled her eyes and I shifted uncomfortably. "The old routes you took are full of heartless. It'll be incredibly dangerous."

"What do we do about it?" Goofy asked.

"If ye can't get through, go around," Sid said simply, "If you go into the cavern and retrieve the gummie I hid in the wall there I'll install it in your ship. Heh, never thought a kid woulda been the one to use it."

"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?" Sora yelled, his fist clenched in front of him.

"Calm down spiky," Rachel laughed, he turned to face her.

"You be quiet, you…. You figment of darkness!" He said. Rachel's eyes didn't even flash, instead she raised an eyebrow and smirked. Sora backed up. "Right."

"Alrighty!" I jumped in, "Rachel lets get going. You said you know the way to the end so we'll go to Hollow Bastion before Sora gets there and clear out some of the heartless."

"Sounds like a plan," Nessa jumped in, she grabbed Rachel's arm and dragged her away. "We'll see you later Sora!" Sora waved goodbye to us and then started to run into the back of the cave to retrieve Cid's gummie block.

We boarded our ship and Nessa flipped on the warp drive switch while I read the navigation map and worked in the coordinates for Hollow Bastion.

"Fasten your seatbelts please!" I shouted back into the cabin where I knew Rachel would be up and around checking out all the cupboards again. I heard her feet moving about. "That means you too Rachel!" I shouted back. I heard her grumble but flop down in a seat and put on her seatbelt. "Taking off in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!" I hit the button and the ship launched into the air. "I love this thing." I said to Nessa. She smiled.

We flew through space and heartless zoomed around us everywhere though for some reason they didn't attack the ship. They avoided it. I saw Rachel get up in the mirror and sit by the window, her hands moving like she was pulling the heartless away from our ship. I tugged on Nessa's sleeve, she just nodded and smiled.

"I knew she would be fine," Nessa mumbled. I raised my eyebrows but she didn't say anything else.

Landing in Hollow Bastion was simple enough. The heartless actually moved away from the ship, creating a circle around it. We didn't bother with the garage we just landed at the front gates.

"So, uh, where is the best place to start removing heartless?" Nessa asked.

"Why do we have to go around killing them if we have Miss Darkness here who can control them?" I asked, looking at Rachel who was facing a rather large dragon heartless and they just stared at each other.

"RACHEL!" Nessa yelled. She spun around.

"Hm?"

"What are you doing?"

"Talking to it."

"How do you talk to it?"

"I don't know. They just know what I'm thinking and I know what they're thinking," She answered, "it's handy."

"Well what is it saying?"

"It's saying they were released by Ansem right before Sora released Kairi's heart and now they are guarding the gate to get to the heart of the world."

"So if they're supposed to be guarding it, why are they out here?" She shrugged, turned to face the heartless and studied the heartless again.

"Because there is someone else in there they don't know and everyone else, besides me, is gone."

"Well that makes a lot of sense!" I grumbled.

"Who is the person inside?" Nessa asked. A pause.

"A person in a black cloak, they're standing in the chamber where you destroyed Maleficent."

"Let's go! I took off into the crowd of heartless that parted out of my way. Rachel and Nessa followed closely behind me and I had the sneaky suspicion the heartless were following Rachel.

The chamber where we killed Maleficent looked incredibly empty. The high walls stretched up into a black ceiling and with only Nessa next to me I felt small. I looked over my shoulder, Rachel was standing in the doorway with the heartless. She didn't want to walk into the room any further, she almost vomited at the entrance, something was wrong.

Nessa felt nauseous too, but not nearly as bad as Rachel. She grabbed my arm to keep me leading her forward. I felt fine, in fact I had never felt better than the time we had entered this room. It emitted a gray that I felt comfortable in.

"Uh guys!" Rachel yelled from the back of the room. We turned to face Rachel she had a wall of heartless in front of her, they stood protectively against the white, liquid figures that faced her. "TURN AROUND!" She screamed.

We turned quickly but we were not expecting the tall cloaked figure that was before us. Towering above us the man inside the cloak let out a laugh that made me stand up a little straighter and stare into the blackness of that cloak. Nessa's head turned to the side and she vomited.

Rachel made a hiss of disgust and the loud ping of her sword as it came into her hands echoed around the room. I heard her push through the lines of heartless and take some of the white creatures out. Then she was up beside me.

The man took a step back.

"Finally, the three who wield the powers of life," He inclined his head towards us in a mock bow. "It's an honor." Rachel swallowed hard. He let out a laugh again.

"Who are you?" I asked, seeming to be the only one who could talk.

"Not a who, but what. As for a name, it is of no importance," He said. His voice was deep and familiar. Like I had heard it before in a dream. I was drawn to it.

"Well then what are you?" Rachel asked.

"Nothing. The gray screen between the powers of light and dark." The heartless and the white creatures lined the room, facing each other in a stand off, waiting for one command. "And one of you is also nothing, but everything." Nessa's shield was growing brighter and brighter as the tension in the room rose. Rachel and I stood next to each other, tense and waiting. "It is not her, the one with the control of the light. See how it glimmers and denies me any comfort from it," He said, sounding deeply upset, "and do you feel the darkness, girl of dark? Do you feel how it resists to encase me in its splendor and power?"

Rachel stayed silent she stared up at him and I copied her blank expression. She was trying to keep us together. By not saying who controlled the darkness she left him guessing who he was looking for.

"Soon, when the key arrives and seals it is then I shall know who is the nothing and who is the dark. Until then," The ground became unsteady and a portal opened beneath our feet. We dropped into the darkness.


	34. Chapter 34

"_**Well that was rude," I muttered to myself. I stood up a little bit of purple dirt stuck to my hands and I brushed it off on my tattered jeans. Nessa and Meg were still down on the ground. I looked around curiously. "EXTREMELY RUDE!" I shouted. My friends twitched but didn't wake.**_

_**The ground I stood on was a soft purple dirt. Kind of light like sand but a bit heavier. The surrounding blackness could have been the walls of a room if I hadn't known better. I reached my hand out to touch it and as soon as my hand left the ray of light coming from the dirt it disappeared into the inky blackness. **_

_**Whoever had been in that cloak sent us straight into the darkness where the door to Kingdom Hearts would be revealed. In the deep darkness I heard a rumbling laugh. It was hard to tell where it came from or even how far away it was. I moved back into our small circle of light and waited, keeping my friends under close watch.**_

_**Meg was the first to wake up. She seemed to realize exactly where we were the second her eyes popped open. She sat up and looked at me. I looked into her questioning eyes and nodded.**_

"_**The realm of darkness." **_

"_**Why would that freak send us here?" She asked.**_

"_**I'm not sure. But all I do know is when spiky gets here we have to be ready to make a run for it, Nessa conscious or not." Meg nodded solemnly. We sat in silence for a bit. Loud screams and shouts blasted through the darkness. I tried to reach into the darkness at where the sound was coming from but the direction always changed. **_

_**Nessa was now starting to come around. She opened her eyes and the aura of light that shot off of her extended our view of the soft patch of dirt. It was a path and we were sitting in the middle. We could go two ways: the way closest to Nessa or the one behind me. **_

"_**Where are we?" She asked.**_

"_**The realm of darkness!" Meg answered cheerfully. I smiled at her. Nessa smiled back and took in our surroundings. "Is Sora almost here yet Rach?" **_

"_**Possibly. There is something pushing at the force of darkness on the light side. Its possibly him." As soon as I had spoken a brilliant white light came falling down everywhere the path around us was lit.**_

"_**WHICH WAY?" Meg said jumping up. Nessa and I were right behind her. I looked around quickly, taking in everything. I saw the huge doors that I had seen in the heartless made by Ansem mind. **_

"_**Past Nessa!" I screamed and started running. They took off in the same instant. We only covered a short amount of ground before it fell dark again. **_

_**Off in the distance we heard "WHA-" then a loud quack. **_

"_**Donald!" Nessa said cheerfully. We stopped and waited. Another bright light flashed and we were off, running in the same direction. **_

"_**GO GO!" I screamed. We ran faster and then suddenly the light was gone. We skidded to a stop.**_

"_**Gwahuh!" **_

"_**Goofy!" I said with a smile. Meg nodded. Any second now Sora would come flying through and give us the last patch of light to get to the door. It seemed to take longer than the other two. What was taking him so long? I was about to scream in the tension but then the flash of light came and we were off. The path curved sharply to the left and we had to skid to a stop before turning. We ran quickly and the doors were right in front of us. The light was gone but the doors gave off such a brilliance that we didn't need it anymore. **_

"_**AHHH!" Meg screamed and she was gone. I instinctively reached out with my hand and caught a loose grip on her hand. My stomach hit the edge of the path and the impact knocked the breath out of me. "Thank you Rachel," Meg said matter-of-factly. **_

"_**No problem," I grunted. Nessa reached down with her hand and grabbed Meg's other hand. Together we pulled her back up to our sound. **_

"_**That was exciting!" Nessa said. "I think this has been the most tense I've felt since Rachel tried to kill us in the library!" She joked. Meg nodded, I looked away sheepishly. **_

"_**So how big is this thing?" I asked. Meg shrugged. Nessa's face suddenly scrunched up and the aura of light suddenly came shooting further out of her. I had to jump back to keep it from hitting me. "OUCH!" I screeched as a bit of it touched my arm. She smiled apologetically. The break in the path was only about 100 feet. Not easily jumped. **_

"_**Can you open portals here?" Nessa asked. I shrugged and tried to reach out to the darkness for the portal. I concentrated hard, trying to make the waves appear.**_

"_**No," I muttered in defeat, "I think its because it's the place where the portals connect and we have to shoot through here to get from Point A to Point B." **_

"_**Makes sense," Nessa agreed. Meg grunted. "Any ideas." We all paused to think.**_

"_**GOT IT!" I shouted. I reached back into the darkness and thought of the most convenient heartless to create. Then suddenly Meg and Nessa gasped. There were three heartless dragons landed on the edge of the cliff. I smiled at them and helped my friends mount. **_

"_**Good plan!" Meg shouted as they took off. Quickly flying across the pit to get us safely to the other side. I smiled as we dismounted and in turn patted the heartless in the had before they disappeared back into swirling blackness. We took off running again, this time a bit slower, for precaution.**_

_**We reached the door and there was no one around. My stomach dropped. Where is Riku? I thought. He should have made it out like me, where was he? We waited a long time, keeping just out of sight by the side of the door. Within minutes of Sora entering the realm of darkness light flooded everywhere and we could see the battle with the huge ship. **_

_**Ansem went down without much effort on Sora's part. I laughed happily as he was shocked into light. He floated towards us moving fast. The doors became brighter.**_

"_**I KNOW NOW, more than ever, that Kingdom Hearts, is light!" Sora shouted. The doors shuddered and then flew open. A blinding light came flying out of it. I screeched as badly as Ansem and ducked behind Meg with my eyes squeezed shut and covered with my hands. Meg and Nessa gasped with amazement as it opened. We raced around as Sora, Donald and Goofy came running up and started to close it**_

"_**HURRY SHUT IT!" Donald was yelling. Sora, and Goofy grabbed the edges and started pushing. Meg, Nessa, and I arrived to help them.**_

"_**I can't!" Sora complained. A pair of black-gloved hands reached around and grabbed the sides. My hold on the door was no more. **_

"_**Don't give up! Come on Sora, together we can do it!" Riku called. Sora nodded and they started pushing again. **_

"_**RIKU!" I reveled, "YOU MADE IT!" He looked at me but kept his mind on the task at hand.**_

"_**Rachel, we have to shut the door," He explained.**_

"_**I know that," I said, grabbing a hold of the door again. "I'm so sorry!" I apologized, "I didn't know that was plan. Come over to this side!" He shook his head.**_

"_**This is impossible!" Donald yelled. There was a flash of light from the inside. We could see the outline of the king behind Riku but I refused to look away from him.**_

"_**But-" Sora and I said at the same time.**_

"_**Don't worry there will always be a door to the light," the King said. Riku was looking directly at me. His green eyes bright behind the locks of silver hair in the blackness. Goofy was encouraging Sora and a moment of understanding my struggle against them.**_

"_**Now Sora!" King Mickey said. "Let's close this door for good!" **_

"_**Close it quick!" Donald yelled. passed between the two of us. I slipped my hands out of the crack with the last shove of Goofy and Sora.**_

"_**I'll see you on the other side." He said, reaching his hand towards me. I half smiled back and reached my hand towards him. The door shut and Sora leapt back. A flash of white light between the crack sealed the door and it dissolved into the surrounding darkness. **_

"_**What do we do now?" Meg asked, looking around. Sora, Donald, and Goofy had disappeared. Nessa looked around. We were standing on that dirt road that stretched in two directions into the darkness again.**_

"_**I guess we start walking."**_

"_**Does anyone else hear that noise?" Meg asked, looking behind us. I squinted into the darkness, though I could see into it pretty well without squinting. I could see the outlines of heartless flying at us. **_

"_**Yeah," Nessa answered. **_

"_**There's a bunch of heartless coming towards us," I answered. I whipped out my sword, "You guys ready for one more fight? These aren't ones I can control," I asked. They got out their weapons too and we stood ready on the path for them. **_

"_**I think I can handle one more," Meg said hotly. Nessa laughed as she tightened the straps of the shield to her arm and slipped the spiked arm bracelets over her other arm. The heartless were only 10 yards away now. "SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE!" Meg yelled and she charged towards them. Already a bright red ring of fire was encircling her.**_

_**The end… of game one.**_


	35. Chapter 35

**The light in Meg's living room was very off. A gray light blurred the doorway, leading to the kitchen, on my left. The light falling onto the soft carpet nearly blinded me with its brilliance. The room was completely empty except for the television which buzzed white noise, the noise sounded so distant and unimportant.**

_Everything around myself was illuminated in light. I felt like a sun as I stepped forward and lit up the hallway leading to Meg's living room. When I reached the doorway the tendrils of darkness coming from across the barren living room almost covered the fuzzy light coming from the kitchen doorway. The televisions buzzed white noise quietly from the speakers._

My kitchen looked exactly like I remembered but somehow I knew nothing could possibly be moved around it seemed painted. I was standing in the doorway leading to the living room, half of me in the kitchen, the other half in the empty room with the TV blaring nonsense white noise. I turned to face it and noticed the two conflicting lights pushing at each other in the room, refusing to touch each other. 

**I stepped into the living room and moved. The white heavenly light and the fuzzy gray also stepped closer to the television with me. I looked into the television screen.**

_Stepping closer to the television I could see the faint outline of two figures to my right._

On both sides of me I felt them. The darkness and the light. I could see their outlines on the television through the white noise I could faintly hear them breathing beside me.

_**Their bodies appeared on the screen. I screamed.**_


	36. Chapter 36

**Meg's story. **

**[theme song] Lets start a riot- three days grace**

**There was something soft brushing against my skin and the scent of grass filled my nose. A soft breeze pushed at the clothes on my back. I groaned and opened my eyes. The bright sunshine hurt and made me shut them tightly again. **

**I slowly opened them, this time letting my eyes adjust before I moved. I was lying in a soft bed of grass that towered at least a foot above me. With another groan I rolled over onto my stomach and lifted myself up slowly with my legs and hands. **

**Standing up the grass only came to my knees and it was everywhere. **

_**So, I'm in a meadow.**_** I thought bitterly to myself. **_**So which way do I go?**_

**All around me there was grass, nothing but grass. It was nice and green, but everywhere! **_**Okay, think. What would Nessa and Rachel do in a situation like this?**_** Shit. That was the wrong way to think. Where were they? How did I get here? Was I even myself, or something like Rachel had become? Had that man in the cloak brought me here? **

_**STOP!**_** I made myself quite thinking. **_**Relax. Okay. Start walking… that way, **_**to the sun, **_**the worst that could happen is you have to stop at night.**_** So I started walking.**

**Eventually the grass faded into a dirt path that led straight, so far as I could tell. My shoes made a crunching noises on the ground and I just kept walking, fighting back all the questions that threatened to overflow my mind and make me feel crazy so I concentrated on moving my legs. **

**Something was wrong, I could barely see my feet now. I stopped in the middle of the path and looked around. It was nighttime, it had crept up on me before I realized. I conveniently stood in the middle of an intersection. I looked to the left and the right.**

"**AH!" I screamed and jumped back, pulling my staff out and holding it defensively in front of me. The tall cloaked figure floated just above the ground. The person lowered themselves, their feed landed lightly on the ground and a plume of dust rose up from the ground. **

"**So it was you," the deep voice was the same as the one back in Hollow Bastion. SHIT Rachel wasn't here, he knew I was the gray. "Welcome to Oblivion." I waited for something else to come from behind that hood before I spoke. There was a long pause.**

"**Will you come with me? I know why you never feel at place between your friends. Why no one could ever relate with you at the same level. Just come with me." He stretched out his hand. **

"**Who are you?"**

"**My name is no-"**

"**It is if I am following you into the unknown!" I said impatiently. He laughed.**

"**Very well. I am Xemnas leader of the Organization XIII."**

"**And… why do you need me to come along? Are you looking for your member 13? Because I can tell you now that's not what I want to do." **

"**I can assure you when you have spoken with the others you will find this is exactly what you want to do." His hand was still outstretched. I slowly stepped forward, like Rachel says, "put on your shit stompers and keep stomping."**

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"**What is this place?" I asked. Xemnas laughed. **

"**Castle Oblivion," he answered, "Welcome." **

**Castle Oblivion [in three words]: huge, confusing and white. Every surface sparkled with a cleanliness that only obsessive impulsive cleaners can achieve. Towers and windows sprouted out of random places and I tilted my neck as far back as it would go before we stepped under the archway of the main gate. The pale green doors opened slowly revealing the same pristine white surfaces as on the outside. Pale purples and blues highlighted doorways but all in all I felt like I was surrounded by a white box. Great.**

**Xemnas pulled a stack of cards from his cloak and handed them to me.**

"**What exactly am I supposed to do with these?" I asked, "Is the Organization a group of poker players?"**

**He ignored me and took one card out his stack and returning the rest to the inside of his cloak. "This card, which is the one on top of your stack is used to get to the highest floor where I work. The second card will take you there. Now there are others in the castle who would do you and myself harm if they knew I brought you here, so until you meet them, you're safe."**

**I just stared at him, trying to take in everything he was saying at once. He ignored my complete confusion and held out his hand. "I am needed elsewhere, someone will be waiting for you down in the basement, please make yourself at home until he arrives." I raised my eyebrows waiting, "Use your card and open the portal." He threw his on the ground and a door rose up from the ground. "I'll speak with you later." He walked through the door and as soon as it closed, it disappeared. **

**I stood there, not exactly sure what to do. I flipped the card over in my hand, looking for nothing in particular. Maybe a set of directions, I don't know. I tossed it on the ground willing the door to appear. The blue card lay there for a moment, nothing happened. I jumped. The door sprouted up from the ground and towered over me. There was a large arrow pointing down on it.**

"**Ah! So that's how you do it." I pulled on the handle but it proved heavier than it looked. "Right." I pulled harder and it slowly opened. Inside it I could see nothing but white light. Stepping in I heard the door slam shut behind me. I waited a second, then stepped forward and as I did the whiteness around me slipped away and I was standing in a dark room with gray stone walls. It smelled damp but the air was dry. **

**Looking around there wasn't much to see. Like the floor above, or floors, it was plain, but instead of white it was black. There was only a little bit of light coming from small holes in the floor. It was a huge cavern room and I felt so small.**

**It was then I realized that I was standing on the ceiling, not the floor. This room was the inverted copy of the first floor above. I swayed and felt nauseas but when the ceiling, err floor, never got closer I felt a little steadier. I kept my eyes near my feet and worked my way over to a wall. There was a doorway and I walked through it, feeling only a little bit better as this ceiling/floor was a lot lower than in the last room. Less of a fall in case gravity decided to take over again.**

**The room off the large hanger was much more comfortable, though I still walked on the ceiling it was easier not to panic so much when the drop was only a few feet over my head as opposed to about fifty feet. There was a couch between two doors. I tried the first door but it was locked. I thought about sitting down on the couch because the second door was probably locked as well. I gave it a good strong tug, but nothing happened. **

**I growled through my gritted teeth. If Xemnas wanted me to succeed here he should give better directions, honestly. I was completely lost at what he wanted me to do. **

**I remembered the cards on my hand and realized they each had a picture of something on their fronts. The blue card that was third in my stack had a picture of a very small heartless with its yellow eyes glancing up at me. I looked from my stack of cards to the door I stood in front of.**

**When I glanced the second time, there was something new carved into the perfect dark marble door. There were two cut outs, that could perfectly be filled by my cards. "Ah!" I grabbed the third card and then placed the fourth in. **

**The third with its small heartless and the fourth with its ray of light. The door shimmered and suddenly I was no longer standing in the dark hall. **

**I stood on the beach. It was like any other beach: perfect sand and sparkling blue water. The sun beat down on me and I realized how heavy and hot my clothes were in the sunshine. When my eyes adjusted to the light I caught sight of palm trees blowing gently in the wind, their bending trunks made interesting shapes that flowed with the sand. **

**With a glance to my left I saw Rachel. She sat, perfectly still on a piece of driftwood, staring off over the water looking entirely lost.**

"**RACHEL!" I called and started to run to her. Her head didn't budge an inch. When I reached her she continued to stare out across the water as if I didn't exist. "Cut it out Rach, we've got to find Nessa." Still she didn't respond. I reached out with my hand to grab her shoulder but I passed right through her. "WHAT?"**

**I jumped back. "What's going on?" I whirled around, leaving Rachel where she sat. Then I saw Nessa. **

**She was sitting on the ground where I had started my wandering at the beach. "WANESSA!" I cried and ran to her. The sand was becoming even more difficult to run across. I reached her and hesitantly reached my hand out to touch her. **

**It was the same effect as with Rachel, she acted as if I didn't exist and my hand passed right through her.**

"**Wha-" **

"**It's an illusion." **

**I whirled around. There stood a young man, possibly a year or two older than myself. He was pale with long red hair that was pushed back from his face and spiked down to his shoulders. His face said outright that he did not wish to be here and his arms crossed across his chest showed his introvert-ness. His eyes were an intense shade of green and I found it hard to look away.**

"**An illusion?" **

"**Yes. You put in a combination of cards into the door and they joined together to make this world. You're friends are of light and dark. Light of the sun, darkness of the bottomless ocean. You ended up with a beach and two friends who are not real, only resemble the real ones," he answered.**

"**Well where are my real friends?" I asked, panicking. Had Xemnas and his Organization done something to them?**

"**Who knows?" His black cloak didn't seem to bother him the blaring heat of the sun. "I suspect they are far away from you, off on their own stories, working for dark or light as we do for the gray in between."**

"**So who are you?"**

"**I am Axel, got it memorized?" he introduced himself much more quickly than Xemnas, only it was very rude. "I hate the basement, it is really disgusting and dark. Xemnas asked me to teach you about the cards because I came up with the system. It's mostly obvious but since this is Castle Oblivion, most obvious things are lost." **

"**Right," I muttered. I looked at Rachel and Nessa. They looked completely lost where they sat and I just wanted to talk to them.**

"**Don't worry, they're only memories." **


	37. Chapter 37

_Nessa's Story_

[theme song] Count Your Last Blessings; Sum 41

Space. Such an interesting term for the universe surrounding all the different worlds that are places. In a way it doesn't fit its name at all. There is nothing there, nothing can fill the emptiness which makes it turn to space: an unoccupied area.

So it seemed impossible to myself now that I was floating along in the nothingness. I could feel no breeze against my skin, nor could I open my eyes to see if I was surrounded by brilliant stars and small planets. But I knew. I knew I was moving through the nothingness of space to somewhere.

I had no sense of time, but I began to feel weary and I lost consciousness again, and I continued to drift through the nothing.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When woke I was lying on a soft bed covered in big blankets that tucked in the heat around me. I kept my eyes closed and enjoyed their warmth. My thoughts hit me suddenly.

We had been racing into the heartless, the room with the television giving off white noise and the smooth flight through space. Now I was in a bed with absolutely no clues as to where I was.

Were Meg and Rachel here too? Were we all safe and back at Meg's house like we should be at the end of the game? I peeked one eye open and as it focused all the colors surrounding me came into view. With my one eye I could see a wooden table in the center of the room. I opened both eyes

Surrounding the table were piles of books stacked unevenly and tossed across the table. There was a large computer system lighting up the room along with the sunshine that spilled through the two lightly curtained windows. The floor was stone and the walls were a soft shade of wood. There was a little kitchen around one of the corners and a doorway that presumably led to a bathroom.

I stood up slowly, checking how much my legs could take before I stood, but instead of falling I found myself sturdy and ready to move. I was still dressed in the same tattered PJ-s I had left Meg's in.

It was then I noticed the sudden urge of my bladder and I decided to try the door on the other side of the small kitchen. I moved my way slowly over to the door, knocked lightly, and when there was no response opened it.

When I came back out the hairs on my neck instantly stood up, there was someone else in the room. I was careful to look around before proceeding into completely exposure. At the table sat someone with their back to me. They had longer brown hair and a jacket with red wings on the back.

"I'm glad you're awake." It was a man, the voice was extremely familiar… where had I heard it before?

"LEON!" I suddenly realized vocally. He turned around and flashed me a small smile.

"How are you feeling Wanessa?" he asked. I thought about it.

"Confused," I simply stated.

"Logically. I meant physically first? No pain?" "None at all, I feel brand new in fact."

"Well you definitely do not look brand new!" Another voice joined our party, a female. I looked around. I spotted a little woman with knee high chucks and shorts with a black jacket and tank top. "The names Yuffie, it's a pleasure to meet you!" She introduced herself with extreme enthusiasm.

"Yuffie!" Leon muttered sharply, "She just woke up." It was then I became a little self conscious and Yuffie seemed to realize my predicament.

"No worries, Wanessa right?"

"Just Nessa," I corrected.

"No worries Nessa, Aerith and I have gotten you all taken care of!" She opened up the door. "If you'll just follow me." I looked from Leon to Yuffie. He just shrugged and turned back to doing whatever he was doing. "Come on!" she grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the house and into the brilliant sunshine.

I followed Yuffie through the bright streets. There were high stone walls and houses with thatched or tiled roofs. There were a few people walking around doing business. They took one look at me but continued on their way without a second glance.

"Yuffie where are we?" I asked. The town was completely unfamiliar to me.

"Hollow Bastion."

"But-"

"Don't worry we'll explain everything later, first lets get you cleaned up!" She continued her fast paced walk that my newly tired legs had a hard time keeping up with her even though she was tiny.

Eventually she stopped outside of a building that was cleanly kept with a nice little garden out front. A woman and her young girl walked out the door and Yuffie held it open for them. The familiar scent of a hair stylist odor immediately hit my nose when I walked inside.

The front room was just wooden floors with a light blue wall paper. The chairs lining the walls matched the wall paper color and between them on little wooden tables were potted flowers with a beautiful smell coming from them. The first doorway on the left looked like a reception area and had a woman standing behind a counter with a pencil in her ear and her hand halfway reaching to it as she looked at a piece of paper.

Her hair was long and brown and pulled back behind her head in a braid. Her bangs lifted from her head and behind them I could see a large pink bow. Her dress was long and pink.

"Aerith!" Yuffie called hello. We walked into the reception area. The young woman looked up and smiled warmly.

"Yuffie." Her voice was soft and sweet. "Hello," she said, including me in her welcome.

"Aerith I would like you to meet Nessa," Yuffie pushed me forward to meet her, I smiled, "Nessa, meet Aerith she is our healer."

"It's wonderful to meet you," she said even more pleasantly than before. I liked her voice. I just smiled.

"So," Yuffie looked around anxiously, "Why don't you get her cleaned up and I'll get her some clothes. Nessa what kind of weapon do you have?" I thought for a moment and focused on the energy I knew rested around me. My shield magically appeared on my arm. I suppose Leon had tried to take it off when I arrived at his house or wherever I ended up. "Lovely. I'll get you something to match." She skipped out of the room.

Aerith smiled, "Would you follow me please?" I did. She led me up a hidden flight of steps and into a room with a large shower and bathing tub. There were so many bottles of shampoo, hair care products and soap that I was overwhelmed. She first looked at my skin and decided on a soap and put it in my arms.

Then with a quick flit of her fingers through my hair she picked up a bottle of shampoo and conditioner and handed them to me.

"Take all the time you need," she opened a cabinet and got out a set of white, fluffy towels and left them on the ring next to the shower. I looked at the shower and smiled. I would be clean.

Half an hour later I was back downstairs wrapped up in a huge towel and sitting in a chair with Aerith combing out the tangles. Soon my hair was cut back to shoulder length and was already started to curl as it dried. She checked me for wounds or other injuries and when she found none she called in Yuffie as she swept up the hair clippings.

Yuffie came gliding into the room with a bundle of blue in her hands "Here's new clothes for you Nessa," She said. After she set them down she handed me some undergarments and I sheepishly hid underneath my towel to put them on. When I was wrapped up again Yuffie was holding up a pair of pants. I grabbed them and once again shyly put them on.

Once I was dressed Yuffie fastened two pouches around my waste. They hung loose but when I moved they didn't bump around or upset my walk at all. Aerith helped me lace up the black boots that tucked the loose bottom of the pants into them.

"Alright look at yourself!" Yuffie said excitedly. Aerith graciously pulled the cover off the mirror. I turned around and gasped.

The basic color of the outfit, jacket, pants, shirt, pouches and wrap were sky blue. The jacket itself was the beautiful shade of blue with gray protective pads across the shoulders and a bold black outline along the zipper, hood and short sleeves. At the tips of the sleeves there were bright orange, red and yellow flames. The pants were also outlined by the bold black strip and where the tops of my tall black boots touched the flames burned again. The shirt was gray armor with a blue wrap pulling it tight around my body.

"Do you like it?" Yuffie asked.

"I love it!" I smiled at her.

"EXCELLENT!" She yelled, jumping up and punching the air. Aerith smiled.

The extent of the city in Hollow Bastion was not very large. People were packed into only two districts this time. There were less people than in Traverse Town but there was still a lot of people.

The city ended in the Bailey. It served as a protective gate from the parts of Hollow Bastion that hadn't yet been cleaned of heartless. I followed Leon and Yuffie down here before we took a tour of the town. We stood on the other side of the gate looking down into the ravine surrounding the ruins of the old castle.

The castle was just a bunch of charred stones and crumbling towers. It looked as if it had been blown apart by a bomb. The room where Meg, Rachel and I had stood with the man in the cloak was at the very base of the castle with a wall blown out and I could see straight in.

In the ravine below there were heartless upon heartless swarming in a black lake around the castle. I gasped.

"But aren't they all destroyed?" I asked, spinning around to look at the solemn face of Leon and Yuffie's permanent amused expression.

"We had hoped that once Sora sealed off the heart of this world that they would disappear like they had on the others. We were wrong," Leon answered. "Once the castle was blown apart the heartless swarmed from that opening there," he pointed to the room where we had stood with the man in the cloak, "and filled in the ravine. We have patrols that come down and fight off the braver heartless but mostly they just stay down there and they haven't tried the gates yet."

"Not to mention they usually tear each other apart before we even get there," Yuffie smiled as she said this, I just shuddered.

"So what exactly are you guys doing here?" I ignored her and asked.

"We are the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee," explained Leon, "This was our home so we're trying to rebuild it to the glory it was before Ansem's research led to destruction."

Yuffie pulled a card out of her pocket and handed it to me. It was purple and on the front in bold letters it said 'Honorary Member of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee' and on the back was my name.

"Thanks," I smiled.

"Since you're here, we decided to put you to work," Yuffie smiled boldly. I laughed.

"Well thanks."

"No problem. Now I'll be off. I have to help Aerith out with some more clients then I'm going down with the patrols. LATER!" She took off running.

Leon and I stood in silence for a moment before he turned to leave.

"Uh, Leon," I called.

"Yes?"

"Where will I be staying?"

"Well," he paused. "There is an empty apartment above mine that you could stay. We'll go find you some furniture."


	38. Chapter 38

**Rachel's Story**

[theme song] Apocalypse Please; Muse

Darkness. Everywhere. Surely this couldn't go on forever. It had to end at some point. No light. No sounds. Only the knowledge that I needed to move. I ran and ran. There was nothing to stumble on, the ground was smooth and yet I tripped.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Then a light. It was a small one, only a few feet a head of me. I felt its pull and as much as the darkness comforted me, it scared me. I reached my hand for the light. It started to pull back.

I tried to scream no, but no sound came out of my dry throat. I ran faster the light was shrinking. With one last leap I launched myself at it.

Blackness.

"You know her?" "I think I do."

"What's her name?"

"Its Rachel, possibly."

"Where's she from?"

"I'm not sure. She showed up at Hollow Bastion one day."

"How do you know that?"

"Riku told me about her."

I woke with a splitting headache. It felt like my brain was going to explode. I groaned and pressed my hand against my forehead in an attempt to push my swollen brain back into place.

"Ah you're awake!" I cringed at the voice. Though it was deep and calming it was commanding and it rattled my brain.

"Where am I?" I muttered, hoping, whoever the man was, he heard me.

"A world in between."

"A name?"

"Twilight Town."

"Never heard of it."

"Good."

I lay still for another moment. Not opening my eyes. I tried to relax and the pain slowly, very slowly, drew back into a dull throb. When it was almost completely subsided I peeked open an eye and looked around.

The room was industrial looking with steel plates on the walls. There was a computer hooked up to some sort of ray gun device on the wall adjacent to it. There were several screens, around twelve, and they each ran blue with scans and numbers on each on.

Sitting in the chair before the computer was a very tall man. He was dressed in heavy red and black robes and his face was wrapped up in a strip of red fabric.

I sat up and realized I was on the floor, maybe that's why he looked so tall. I slowly got my feet underneath me and stood up.

Nope. He was just tall on his own. He was taller than me sitting down. I sighed.

"So who are you?" I asked while looking up at the screens again, making absolutely no sense of the numbers.

"Diz. Who, may I ask, are you?"

"Rachel."

"It's an honor Rachel. I'm glad you've awaken. I have been anxiously awaiting the day when I met you," his voice was deep and there was a small hint of sarcasm and truth in his voice. Was he being serious?

"Why?" asking cautiously I backed up.

"Why? Because you are the darkness in peoples hearts."

"I don't understand."

"Of course. No one has explained this to you," he then launched into a long explanation, "You are the darkness in people's hearts. From the first sliver of darkness a person was made who could control that darkness and summon it to do its will. That is you. You are the essence of darkness itself. The reason you are not evil as so many minions of the dark are is because you are the darkness. Not a heartless, it is just part of your genetic make-up."

"Ah. That makes a bit more sense. So why then, way back when, did I become so crazy?" A million other questions popped up with it, "And how long have I been unconscious? Where are my friends? Where is Twilight Town?"

"Silence." I shut up with my mouth hanging open. "You are just power hungry, everyone is. Power or knowledge hungry. Though some would say knowledge is power. Since the King and I found you, you have been unconscious for two days. Before that we have no clue. I don't know where your friends are, they could be anywhere in the universe. Twilight Town is only a few hours away from Castle Disney."

I sat back down and leaned against the wall. "Huh." Was all I could say.

For a long time Diz let me sit there and think. My friends weren't even with me. We were supposed to be back in Meg's living room staring at the television in disbelief! Not separated in a video game universe! What was wrong with the world? We weren't supposed to go fulfilling some weird prophecy created by a code of numbers and words.

When Diz left the room for a moment I heard some cluttering around and when he came back he held two bright blue popsicles in his hand, he handed one to me. I eyed it carefully but my stomach rumbled loudly. I stuck it in my mouth. What's the worst that could happen? I die and go back to start?

Salty. Sweet! It was delicious.

"Sea Salt Ice Cream," Diz filled in.

"It's delicious!" He nodded and a small smile played on his lips.

"I'm glad you like it." He finished his up within minutes but I savored mine. "Now, Rachel, there are a few things that have happened since you've been unconscious and I feel that you could find a lot out about the location of your friends if you help me out."

"What do you need me to do?"

"Mostly field research. You will go somewhere and report back. I just need bits of information from various places. It requires stealth and good fighting skills."

"I can do that."

"And in payment I will help you find your friends. I am almost positive one is located in Hollow Bastion, but it is hard to tell. There is a thick infestation of Heartless there and they tend to block information to my computer."

"That's fine. I can look for them when you don't have a job for me."

"Of course you don't have to stay here. I will certainly pay you money and give you a device to speak with me when I need you to check something out." I nodded. When he realized I was actually willing to work for him he sighed. "Alright, let me fill you in on a few things."

Since I had been unconscious there was a new power rising from an unknown world that seemed to have manifested out of nowhere. There was a gray fuzz on Diz's map of the worlds and it was impossible to get a reading on. About a month ago the King disappeared off his radar, he was headed towards that gray area to see if it was a danger. He hadn't heard from the King since then.

Hollow Bastion was under reconstruction and all the worlds had once again been separated and highways between them were closed. New paths had to be made. Since Diz had no Gummy Ships he made sure I could still open the pathways in to the realm of darkness to teleport. I still could.

As it was, I stayed with Diz for several days. He provided the most delicious food and had a stockpile of Sea Salt Ice Cream stored up. He told me all about his research and it was based on finding why the darkness affected hearts so. There were many things he knew and just as many that he didn't. He gave me a guide to most of the heartless to look over but I assured him I already knew most of it, and I did.

There were his research papers, written by a man named Ansem, all gathered up and neatly stacked and I poured through them. They started from the first day of his research until now. I could barely read fast enough as I read about the extracted hearts and then the sudden day when his assistant Xemnas wanted to search further into it and Ansem forbid him. Then their worlds ceased to exist as they knew it.

Before I knew it a month passed and Diz decided it was time to kick me out and send me on my first errand. It was then he realized while filling a traveling kit for me that he noticed the dire state of my clothing.

"Go to Hollow Bastion first, get new clothes from a girl name Aerith. Tell her Diz sent you and she'll help you right out," He explained. He gave me the coordinates of the place where he wanted me to go afterward and with a wave goodbye I looked into the darkness. The portal rose up and I was zipping through the darkness again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hollow Bastion was an extremely lively place. I had accidentally landed on the other side in the middle of a small plaza with people around me everywhere. I smiled sheepishly and asked for Aerith.

Eventually when the people got over their shock they sent me in the right direction of her store. I walked in, immediately recognizing the smell of a hair salon.

"May I help you?" A smooth and soft voice called from the receptionist area. I walked in and smiled.

"Yeah, Diz sent me." She studied me, her long brown hair was pulled back in a braid held with a pink bow. With a nod of her head she motioned for me to follow. I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror and grimaced. I looked terrible.

"Here," she shoved a bottle of shampoo, conditioner and soap into my hands and reached into the shower and turned the water up and immediately steam started. Then she tossed a towel next to the tub. "Take as long as you need." She quickly flitted out of the room.

Did I really make people that nervous?

My shower was wonderful and I stepped out smelling clean and feeling happy. When I walked back down into the main room wrapped up in my towel Aerith looked a little more hospitable.

"I just spoke with Diz and he was telling me about the kind of tasks you will be performing so I think a practical haircut and outfit work best for you." She sat me down in a chair and within seconds my hair was combed, three inches cut out of it and a few layers tossed in for added volume, she said.

Then she came into the room carrying a red fold of clothes and placed them on the counter and pulled a pair of boots out from one of the drawers.

"I'll leave you too it, Diz paid so when you're done just go ahead and walk out," she flew from the room, almost slamming to door shut behind her. I sighed and grabbed the first piece of clothing.

When I was all dressed I looked in the mirror and gasped. Whoa.

My outfit was red, really red. The jacket, pants, armored shirt and wrap were a beautiful crimson red. The pants had a large gray spade shape of armor outlined in a thick black fabric on each leg. The jacket was also lined in the thick black lining and there were gray armor plates across the shoulders and on the sides of my shirt. My boots were black and matched the pouches on my sides.

I quickly replaced the stuff from my traveling pack Diz gave me into the pouches on my pants. Then I reached into the darkness and opened the portal feeling the pull of heartless on my heart.


	39. Chapter 39

Meg's Story part 2:

[theme song] Oxford Comma; Vampire Weekend

I ran along the dark corridor quickly, my black boots barely made any noise at all when they touched the ground. I concentrated on listening for any other beings, or in this case no-beings (ha ha… shit), lurking in the dark corners of the basement. In my sleeve I had my deck of cards, totally memorized, ready to be used for an attack or quick escape.

I ran past an adjacent hall and only took a moment to glance to the left to check if the coast was clear. I turned with only the slightest warning. 

A flame shot in front of me. In the same instant my staff was out and posed defensively in front of me. My legs were spread in perfect sword stance as I faced my opponent head on.

He laughed and from behind the black hood of his cloak and sent one of his flaming, spiky disks at me. I shot a stream of ice straight at it. The weapon fell with a heavy 'thud' on the ground. 

"Nice job," he complimented. His weapons disappeared and he lowered the hood of his cloak. I sucked in my breath, still not able to get over the shock of those green eyes. I relaxed my stance too.

"Thanks," I said, lowering my staff only slightly, last time I had let my guard down completely he tossed a flame at me and burnt off half my head of hair. It had grown back quickly, he was lucky.

"Don't forget though," he warned, "Next time it won't just be me down here. Marluxia is getting pretty pissed that we're still training you and is sending his flunkies after you." 

"Thanks for the warning Axel, but I think I can handle it," I brushed off his comment and let my staff fade into the air around me in a light vapor. I barely noticed the hint of concern in his eyes. "Let's go get some lunch, we've been working all morning and I'm starving!" 

"Sure," he nodded and we walked off together towards the kitchen. I fixed us a couple sandwiches and tossed him his and sat down next to him. 

"So," I said, taking a bite of food, "that new kid Roxas, who does he train with?"

"Xemnas," Axel answered shortly, "he's a good fighter, I mean he's got nothing on you in magic but seriously that kid with the Keyblade its like nothing I've ever seen before."

"Keyblade?" I was glad I had just swallowed my food since my jaw dropped. 

Axel took a big bite of his sandwich and made a big show of chewing it. He had to swallow eventually. When he did swallow it was immediately followed by another huge bite of his sandwich, it was almost gone now. Then he took another, swallowed and muttered something that sounded a little bit like "see you later" and raced off. I growled.

I left the kitchen and wandered around on the floor above me I heard footsteps and loud bangs. Sora was fighting in the castle again, in a world made up by the combination of cards he had put in the door. I sighed and reached for the twentieth card in my deck and threw it on the ground. I stepped into the door and slammed it shut behind me. 

Instantly I was in the meeting chamber where only a week before my fate had been decided by Marluxia and they were told to stop training me and I would live. No one had listened to him and then tomorrow if I survived, I would be kicked out of the castle. That wasn't good. Without Axel and Xemnas's protection I was an open target out in those fields. 

All thirteen chairs were empty and only one rose up to the ceiling. I glared at it, knowing that if the Organization were in session that is where pink Marluxia would be sitting. The asshole. 

I walked out the door of the meeting room and started walking down the hall. I heard voices up ahead and jumped behind a large white pedestal that held a large amount of HP balls. 

"Vexen is out of control," I recognized that snide voice of Marluxia immediately. I grit my teeth together and sneaked a peak around the edge of the pedestal. His pink hair was ridiculously bright. "The Superior asked for me to tell you to take care of him." I couldn't see who Marluxia was talking to. If I moved anymore they were sure to notice it. Marluxia didn't like me at all. 

"He is going to give away our plans and then reveal Roxas," Marluxia explained, whoever he was talking to didn't answer vocally, "They're in Twilight Town now. Take care of it." I whipped my head back around as he turned to face me. 

I waited a long silent minute and when I was sure they were gone I reached for my cards and pulled the combination for the mysterious twilight town.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I'm not throwing away my heart!" I heard Sora yelling in the distance. I was standing next to a giant blast in the stone wall. On the other side there was a dark forest and without thinking I ran straight through it. 

The sound of battle started, Sora's Keyblade smashing into Vexen's ice shield. I dodged low hanging branches and stayed light on my feet the entire way through the thick forest. Sora was yelling and Vexen cried out in pain. 

A loud groan reached my ears when I stopped. I hid behind a large tree. I could see Sora still standing and Vexen on the ground, his long hair spilling onto the ground as he tried to get his legs under him and stand up.

"Lost to your memories, but still, such power!" he gasped, finally getting his feet under him.

"I don't care about that!" Sora yelled, "Turn Riku back to normal!" Vexen laughed a little too hysterically than was normal, he must be in serious pain.

"Turn him back? All he can do now is fall into the empty darkness," he stood slowly, "Just like you Sora!" He staggered around like a drunk. "If you continue go after Namine you'll be trapped by your memories and loose your heart and just be Marluxia's tool!"

"Marluxia? What's he got to do with Namine?" Brilliant Sora. You never did catch on quickly I thought to myself. Even I knew that Marluxia planned to use Namine against Sora and break the chains of his memory into pieces. Axel had let slip so much. 

Fire streaked across the ground towards them. I felt its heat hit my face as it flew towards Vexen. He fell backwards and crashed into the ground. Axel stood, holding his pose then stood up.

"Hey Sora," he said, "Did I come at a bad time?" I almost leapt out of the trees and choked him. What was he doing attacking other Organization members? Marluxia just wanted the problem taken care of, not destroyed.

Or he did want it destroyed and he was a killer.

Vexen rolled over from being on his back and stood up, looking incredibly weak. I wanted to run to the scientist but couldn't leave my hiding spot. Who knew what Axel would do if Sora found out I was here. I was more afraid of Marluxia's reaction. 

"Axel," Vexen asked, grunting, "What are you-" "Just stopping you from saying things you shouldn't," Axel smirked, crossing his arms over his chest I was once against mesmerized by those green eyes. "And, finishing you off." I snapped out of it and almost growled. How could he? 

"NO WAIT!" Vexen tried to stand.

"We just exist, we are Nobodies," Axel said calmly, "But your memories and existence end here. Aren't you happy?" 

"S-stop!" Vexen tried, the fear in his eyes were almost too great. I thought about rushing out there and choking Axel but it wouldn't do any good. I would speak with him later. "I don't want to-" 

"Well see you," Axel snapped his fingers. A bright flame shot from the center of Vexen's chest. Another flame encircled and coiled around him shooting from every center of his body outward. Then he collapsed on the ground the flame gone and he dissolved into nothing. 

I glanced at Sora. His face was complete astonished terror. I reached for my cards and threw down the first combo I could find. I stepped through the door, not caring how loud the slam was and ended up back in the room where I first met Axel.

Someone grabbed my arm and I was dragged into another door. 

I ended up standing in the center of the meeting room. Marluxia, Xemnas, Saix, Zexion, Xigbar, Demyx, Xaldin, Larxene, Luxord and Axel all sat up in their chairs looking down at me. Larxene and Marluxia smiled happily as Xemnas cleared his throat and looked down at me only slightly regretfully. Axel simply stared off into nothing, trying to ignore me.

"We are here to discuss the loss of two members and Meggan down there," Xemnas opened up. Marluxia smiled gleefully at my name. Sure enough he had gotten his way. I ground my teeth together. "Vexen was recently lost to us recently today in the floor of Twilight town after a battle. Lexaeus was lost in the basement so he may yet still be alive, who knows. Roxas is still off in Twilight Town." 

"And what of her fate?" Larxene asked annoyingly, "We should tell her what it is so she can at least try to get away." I received a few sympathetic looks from Zexion, Demyx and Xigbar. Axel continued to ignore me and I felt a small jab of betrayal. Xemnas signed.

"I regret to have to tell you this Meggan, but by the fact you are not a Nobody you cannot reside in Castle Oblivion. And since Marluxia pointed out that you have received training from our teachings so now you should be able to withstand attack," he paused and looked down at me, sadly, though I knew they had no feelings, he was regretting letting me go is all. "while you start from the top floor and work your way to the exit with only yours skills with your magic, staff and cards to help you out." 

"Could be worse," I muttered to myself.

"Definitely," Larxene laughed menacingly. I glared at her. 

"Right, I could be blonde." With that I turned and left the meeting room. She let out a shriek and I could feel the shock of lightening in the air behind me.

"Meeting dismissed," Xemnas called. They all left their seats using cards. I didn't bother to shut any doors behind me and after a long moment I heard steps running up behind me.

"Meg wait," Axel called behind me. I didn't stop. Of course, who else would? I trusted Axel from the beginning. Ever since he first explained the memories in the room I created with the figures of Rachel and Nessa sitting there. I listened to every word as he taught me all he knew about wielding fire and then sending me to Demyx for lessons on water. He had convinced each member to teach me something of their magic so I would be very well prepared.

He had even helped me improve my fighting technique with the staff so it was less awkward and more devastating. I was sure I could now face off with Rachel in a weapon battle and stand a fair chance. 

Axel reached for my arm but I pulled out of his grasp and kept going. He then grabbed my hand tight and yanked me back to me.

"I'm trying to talk to you," He growled through gritted teeth, "It would be nice if you would let me." "It would be nice if I wasn't running for my life tomorrow!" I countered. He looked a little taken aback but still held onto my hand. He had been the thirteenth vote, the one too break the tie so I could live. But he had voted Marluxia's way.

"I had to, you know I'm trying to stop-" He cut off.

"No, I don't know because you won't share anything with me except fighting techniques and better ways to control fire. I'm done Axel I'm getting my bag and planning my best route out of here so I can live to see my friends again!" I yelled. I tried to stomp away but he still held onto my hand. I was pretty sure I was going to bruise.

"Head to the basement first," He whispered, leaning in real close to me. I almost jumped from the heat of his skin. He let go of my hand. "I want you to make it out." 


	40. Chapter 40

_Nessa's Story: Part 2_

_Theme song [When Did Your Heart Go Missing: Rooney]_

"_Ha ha!" I laughed. Heartless flew back from my shield and ran into each other trying to crawl back into the darkness of the crater. I heard Leon sigh a little bit behind me. He didn't fully trust the power of my shield and was sure that one day I would be overwhelmed by heartless. _

"_Look out!" Yuffie shouted, but already I had turned. A slightly larger and braver heartless was attempting to sneak up on me. I held up my shield and focused the light to brighten up in the center. It stood its ground but in moments there was nothing left of it except for the red heart floating slowly into the sky. _

"_You're just really, really lucky," Leon teased. I smiled up at him. His long gun blade was pointed towards the ground. He had gotten a bit older since we had arrived. His long brown hair fell to the black of his jacket and he was incredibly handsome._

"_I get that from the shield!" _

"_Probably not. You are just a lucky person." He jumped down from the giant bolder he stood on. The ground crunched lightly under his feet. "Well we better start looking for that room."_

"_Yeah," I mumbled. "There's got to be some computer some where."_

"_You guys have fun!" Yuffie called from back at the top of the basin. I waved goodbye and we started to walk. _

_The heartless were all hiding on the other side of the basin. They stayed as far away from us as they possibly could. I had once voiced my opinion that maybe they were put here to protect Ansem's secret. Maybe he had a computer hidden down here that they were trying to protect. Leon had thought this plausible and so we started to work our way through the huge horde of heartless._

"_Where do you think it is?" I asked. Leon was examining all the possible nooks and took his time before answered._

"_I don't think it is down this low, but there could possibly be some hidden stairs leading to it," he answered, "The castle was a perfect place for him to hide it. When we all lived here, before everything started, that was his home and where he and his assistants did their research."_

"_Well then that's probably a very likely place to do it," I agreed, then mumbled quietly, "Suppose it wasn't your Ansem that didn't make the heartless. Maybe it was someone else." _

"_That's what we would like to think, but he was the one running the operation and okayed all the experiments. So even if he didn't conduct the wonderful one that is eating away at us, he is still involved," Leon said quickly. "Why do you say that?" _

"_I just have this feeling."_

"_Ah. Well I would love to believe it, but its really hard to see it in any other way than what it is. He was destroyed by his research."_

"_Yeah," I muttered. We walked on silent then. We made quick time examining opposite walls and checking for stairs. _

"_Hey do you see that?" Leon asked. I walked over to where he stood. He pointed up towards one of the cliff overhangs._

"_What?" I asked, squinting to try and see better._

"_There are a bunch of heartless gathered around up there!" He started to walk closer. I looked again to where his hand was pointing and I did now notice the mob of black shifting back and forth. _

"_Huh. What do you suppose it is?" _

"_I'm not sure, but we have to get up there."_

"_Oh sure!" I said sarcastically as he looked up the vast cliff wall hanging above us, "Lets just scale these cliffs and hike our way up there." It was a straight climb._

"_There are stairs," Leon said._

"_Where?"_

"_Over there, they wind up and blend into the cliff side so they are hard to see. I wonder who put those there," He hesitated. _

_I suddenly felt the urge to climb those stairs and find out whatever was up there. I started forward quickly. Leon grabbed my elbow to try and pull me back._

"_Wait a sec Nessa," I looked at him. "We should call for reinforcements. They're gathering around it like it's a power source."_

"_Exactly. We should figure out what it is before it grows!" I pulled against his restraint._

"_Wait," he was trying to stay calm but I could see my persistence was annoying him._

"_We've got my shield of light_ and your gun blade. What's the worst that can happen?" I asked. "We get overwhelmed and have to retreat?" 

"Fine." He released my arm. "We'll examine the situation before they notice us and if its nothing bad we'll move in and destroy it, but if it is too big for just us to handle we'll go back and get Yuffie and Cloud." 

"Sounds good!" I started off again and walked quickly. Leon easily kept up and already had his sword out. Ever the precautionist. When I became so reckless, I had no idea. But I liked it. Less worries.

The stairs were steep, tiny and loose. It took us longer to climb them safely than to walk across the basin to get there. I was first with my shield at the ready to send light burning into their darkness. The stairs curled around the top of the stairs and once I was high enough I peeked over the edge and found myself looking under a hundred heartless legs. They were all moving, continuously moving. They circled and hovered and didn't notice even when I poked one in the leg.

"It looks like their sacrificing or worshipping something," I said sarcastically, though it looked like it could be true. 

"Right," Leon mumbled. He peered over the edge beside me. For his sake I hung back for a bit before I walked into their unseeing masses. Leon tried to drag me back, telling me it was dangerous but I just shrugged. It couldn't be too terrible. He grit his teeth but let me go forward anyway, his eyes were full of worry and I smiled reassuringly. Then I stepped up behind the heartless.

With one sudden flash all of their black flesh was gone from in front of me and they stood behind a figure in red. The person there looked up unexpectedly, one hand was on the head of a small heartless, offering what looked like some sort of comfort. They looked up and I gasped.

"Ah Nessa!" They said happily! It was Rachel! Her hair was shorter and she looked fierce in her new clothes but she looked like happy normal Rachel. "It's wonderful to see you!" She raced forward and wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug. She knocked the wind out of my lungs but I didn't mind. I hugged her back.

"What are you doing here?" I asked as soon as she let go and we were facing each other. 

"Well I needed some help and Diz thought maybe one of you was here so I came to check it out," She answered quickly, her words were slurring a bit she was talking so fast. Who was Diz? "And when I got here I couldn't help but feel all these heartless scared in the ravine and I just can't ignore them. They're so adorable." I looked at one. 

The black antennas wobbled and their huge eye balls glowed eerily. They looked like demented children. I just nodded and let her keep speaking.

"So while I was searching for you I gave up for a bit and came out here to see them and offer them some comfort. They have no one to lead them and are lost. The more independent heartless were all killed off or they left. These guys were trying to follow Ansem's orders but the castle is kind of a mess so they are trying still. I was just about to leave and see if it was you causing all the ruckus up at the mouth with your light." She jumped forward and hugged me again. "It's so good to see you again!"

I couldn't think of anything to say. Had it been one month or two since I'd seen her and Meg. She let go with a gasp. Leon walked coldly up to us with his sword set forward, pointed straight at Rachel's heart. Her blade immediately appeared in her hand.

"Whoa guys calm down!" I said, stepping out from between them.

"She is friendly with the heartless!" Leon accused, he stepped a little bit closer. 

"So what if I am?" She smiled evilly.

"What about last time?" Leon asked, looking at me this time. 

"This is Rachel, not possessed Rachel," I introduced, "non-possessed Rachel this is Leon."

"Pleasure," she smiled. Leon slowly lowered his sword. She gave him a glance then looked back to me. "I need help Nessa. I'm trying to find information on this world that's been clouded for some time. Diz needs information and I have to get there. The barriers of darkness are no trouble at all but the light. I can't make it through. It pushes me back every time."

I thought about. Leon looked really apprehensive and glared at Rachel. When he caught me looking his expression lightened but I could see the disapproval in his eyes. Rachel had returned to patting the heartless on the head in turn. How did she get here? Why would she look for me and not Meg? What world was it?

Hollow Bastion was just past the halfway restoration point. Two more districts had been opened up for people to live in and they flocked in daily. Aerith and Yuffie worked hard to heal people and Leon and Cloud could keep the heartless at bay for a few days without me. 

"Leon, can you guys manage without me for a few days," I asked. Rachel smiled happily.

"We could, but I don't approve," he answered bluntly. I lowered my eyes.

"That doesn't change the fact that Rachel has a means to travel and can get me back here quickly if needed."

"She can teleport through the realm of darkness." It wasn't a question. I met his brown eyes and half smiled.

"Don't worry. We've gone through there before and its perfectly fine. Well maybe not perfectly but its fine."

"We'll survive without you," Leon mumbled.

"But will you hate me when I return?" I stepped a little bit closer. He stiffened.

"We'll await your return." He turned around quickly and stalked down the stone steps.

"So," Rachel was now right beside me, "He's a looker." 


	41. Chapter 41

Rachel's Story: Part 2

Theme Song: Lack of Color- Death Cab for Cutie

With Nessa, I felt much better about my chances succeeding. She was bright and happy as normal, it still hurt me to look at her but it was much better then going off on my own for everything.

"Have you seen Meg?" Nessa asked, when we stepped out of the first portal.

"No…" I answered slowly, thinking back, "I haven't. Have you?" "I haven't seen her either."

We stood for a moment in silence, neither of us could think of anything to say.

"So," I said, "Ready to go?" "Yeah, where are we going?" "Beats me!" I said and raised my hand to open up the portal, "Diz, the guy I am working for, gave me these coordinates and asked me to find a scientific journal by Ansem in." "Ansem?" Nessa asked cautiously, she was looking at me nervously, "What about what happened last time?" "Ha, I don't think this is the same, he offered the work to me for one, for two he pointed me in the direction of you and for three he hasn't summoned any heartless," I explained to her. "And come to think of it… there were no heartless where I was."

"That's odd, where were you?" "Twilight Town."

"Never heard of it." "Me either. Ready?" She nodded and we stepped through the portal. There was the familiar suction of darkness pulling on us and then we were out.

"Oh that's more awful than I remember," Nessa said, bending over and resting her hands on her knees. I walked a little ways away from her and looked out.

Before us was a mountainous scene that would take place in any mystical adventure. Fog weaved in and out of the peaks varying in thickness from huge walls to a thin wisp. The sky was cool and heavy with imminent rainfall.

The cliff we were standing on was rocky with only small grass sporadically growing in the hard dirt. Nessa had now stood up and sucked in her breath as she looked around.

"Where do you think we are?"

"I have no clue," I answered, I kept looking around, "But this world seems to be about as real looking as ours, like Earth, I mean. All the other worlds we have been to have been somewhat unrealistic looking."

"Compared to what we're used to," continued Nessa for me, "this world looks very similar to ours, but I doubt that it is."

"That's what I am thinking." I turned around and behind us was something that looked like a path down. "Look down there!" I exclaimed, pointing. We both stepped closure to the edge of the cliff and looked down. There was a small village below. All the buildings were made of wood or stone and every window was dark. No smoke rose from the chimneys and no noises came from below.

"Do you think anyone lives there?" Nessa asked, she was squinting, trying to get a better look.

"It doesn't look like it," I answered, "but I am not really for going down there to look and getting ambushed by the inhabitants. It doesn't look as if they are connected with the other worlds very well."

"No it doesn't, but then how will we find out what is going on?" Nessa kept talking, running a plan out loud but I was not listening. I was concentrating hard on the darkness. "Rachel! Rachel no don't do that!" Nessa was scolding me. But whatever she wanted to prevent it was too late.

Before us on the ground was a very small flying heartless. It looked similar to a bird but there were no feathers or skin even. It was just blackness with the eerie yellow eyes.

"RACHEL!" Nessa managed to yell while whispering, "the heartless could have not even noticed this world and you just opened the door for them to get in here by creating that thing!"

"I don't think that any other type of attack would have left that town looking so intact," I answered, "The heartless are already here anyway, I can feel them. They are gathered somewhere in those foggy mountains."

"Oh," she said quietly, "Why didn't you say so?" "They weren't doing anything weird."

"So sitting in a foggy ravine is not weird to you?" "No, not really. I would be more concerned if they were scouting."

"Right…. So what are you going to do?" "I'm going to send this little guy in to scout the town for us, see if there are any survivors."

"Good plan." and with that we sent the heartless off into the valley. We sat down and waited for its return.

"So what exactly is Diz's big plan?" Nessa asked curiously after a few minutes.

"I'm not exactly sure. He was talking about Sora once, but I don't even know where Sora is. He wants me to find Ansem's journals that he had written before he became a heartless."

"That would help us understand some things about them and what happened to Ansem and the heartless," I nodded, "Hey your thing's back!" We stood up as the heartless-bird landed in front of us. I squatted down to talk to it.

I saw all that he saw while he flew around the town. There were houses and stores completely empty of life, save for a few small rodents and birds. There were no people or any remains of any sort. The houses had things fallen over and looked a little torn up from a struggle, but there was no sign of life. The bird had found a library and after it searched the town thoroughly it had come back to us.

"There is no one down there," I said to Nessa sadly and the bird dissolved into the air.

"Well then, let's go down," she started towards the small path that wound back and forth down the side of the cliff all the way to the bottom. It took us a while to climb down the path as it was steep and narrow.

When we reached the bottom and stood at the edge of the town an eerie feeling crept over us.

"Are we being watched?" Nessa asked me nervously.

"I don't know, I can't really tell but I have the feeling we are," I answered. We walked slowly into the town, both of us with our weapons ready in mist form at our sides. I followed the heartless's memory and it led us straight to a library that stood tall over the buildings.

"If you are looking for a book I suppose the library is the best place to go," Nessa said sarcastically. I smiled at her and together we pushed open the huge wooden doors.

"Now the real question is," I started and then stopped. My voice caught in my throat. There were books everywhere. Though there were a great many neatly placed on the looming bookshelves there were piles of them stacked precariously on every flat and semi-flat surface available. There were stacks of open ones on desks and nearly a hundred spilt on the floor. Looking up and around us the shelves on the wall had ladders that went up to the second and third floors, every level full of books, "how do we find it?" I mumbled.

"Oh my goodness," Nessa's mouth was hanging wide open. "How on earth are we supposed to find this book?"

"That is an excellent question," I said. "Diz said it would be in a leather bound journal with a brown ribbon to mark the pages. On the front it would have a roman numeral number in bronze."

"So helpful," Nessa said, "Well let's think, all of the books that are placed willy-nilly around here are typed, and I suppose this journal is handwritten?"

"Yes, that's what Diz said."

"Okay so we check out the autobiography and research sections first."

"What would I do without you Nessa?"

"Tear this entire library apart searching for it?"

"Too right you are!" And we set off in different directions searching for the book. I walked over to the research section and started pulling books off the shelves.

For an hour or more I searched and could hear nothing coming from Nessa's end of the library. The light coming from the tinted windows above was diminishing quickly, making it hard to see anything properly. I gave up trying to see the books and started walking in the bookshelves around me searching for a lantern.

I walked along the dark aisles, listening for any scrape of a shoe or breathing. I couldn't hear anything and Nessa should have only been two isles down from me. I moved quicker, looking down the darkening isles trying to make out her shape.

I wheeled around the last corner of her section only to be hit in the face with a book. I landed flat on my back and all the wind rushed out of my lungs.

"Oh! Rachel, it's just you!" Nessa leaned down next to me. I tried to suck in air. "I'm sorry! It is getting scary in here!" She pulled me into a sitting position.

"It's okay," I wheezed at her. I stood up quickly. The wind had picked up outside and started to shake the windows. "Maybe we should camp out in here for the evening," I suggested.

"Sounds good," Nessa answered, she started walking down one of the isles. "I think I found a sitting room in here. We could barricade it and maybe find some food."


	42. Chapter 42

Meggan's Story: Part 3

Skillet-Falling Inside the Black

Evanescence- My Immortal

Someone was behind me. I had made it down three floors before anyone had even shown up. Then all of a sudden I was face to face with a laughing Xigbar as he shot his tornado poles at me, forcing me down a back hallway and off my planned route. I ground my teeth in frustration and threw a three card combination into the door before me.

The world I was in was mountainous and cloudy. WHAT ON EARTH IS THIS? I shrieked in my head, not daring to speak out loud. I could not think of a single instance where any world like this had shown up. A little black bird flew past, faster than my eyes could keep up. The door was slowly fading behind me.

I heard a loud, girlish laugh, Larxene! She was putting her cards in the door, a bit slower than I had. She still had to figure out the combination I had put in to get into the same room as me.

I hated doing this but I cast aero around myself and jumped off the cliff.

As I plummeted downward slowly, propelling myself by using my mind to control the air waves I made a good distance from the cliff until I could see the glowing white outline of the door far on the other side and bottom of the ravine.

But of course my flight could not be so easy. Thunder clouds started to gather above me and the hairs on my am started to stand up. Larxene was in the same room as me! The air became more and more charged and soon my hair on my head stood up in every direction like I was touching a charged metal pole.

I flew myself lower to the ground and closer to the edge of the ravine, hoping to be missed by a direct spell. If Larxene couldn't see me she would be less likely to hit me, which would be wonderful! I made in three-quarters of the way to the door before the lightening started charging the air.

Bolts of lightening lit up the sky, one after the other. I thought through every spell I know trying to come up with a way to combine them and block the lightening. I could see Larxene from my hiding spot and I raised my staff.

"GRAVIRA!" I shouted through the thunder. Larxene couldn't hear me but with a great rush of blue she went slamming into the ground. I re-cast aero around myself and shot through the door, landing in another room of white.

"Oww." I moaned as I face planted on the ground. I heard wind rushing past as the door closed slowly behind me. I looked around and ingrained in all of the white where little hints that this was floor three. That was nice of Xigbar, I thought to myself. I slowly stood up. I did not have any wounds, my hair was now lying flat on my arm and hopefully Larxene was still trapped behind the door.

I started to breath in to catch my breath but before I could I heard Larxene cackle once more and started sprinting down the next hall way. I started to feel the heavy darkness of heartless the closer I got to the next door. Throwing in another combination of cards that would make this world serve as a ladder down through the castle, I slammed into the door, pushing it nearly off its hinges to open it. Larxene cackled again, I could see her racing down the hallway.

I threw all my weight against the door forcing closed. The heavy door slammed into place, throwing me back on the ground. The slots for the cards started to light up as Larxene put in her combination.

"NO!" I shouted hoarsely. I leapt off the ground and sent a fiery jolt into the circuits connecting the magic, freezing up the door. I then quickly turned to the side and slammed the handle of my staff onto the handle of the door, breaking it off. As it crashed to the floor I stood up.

"No way," I muttered to myself with a small smile. The room was an intense maze of stairs going in every direction. They stretched into the darkness below me creeping up the walls and ceiling. I took a deep breath and raced towards the edge with every intention of jumping down.

A giant gray cloud pushed me back and slammed me into the door I had just broken. Larxene was still on the other side shrieking and pounding on it. The air in my lungs was forced out as I faced my attacker. Attackers.

Zexion and Lexaeus. Their faces were twisted into smiles of complete glee. Zexion raised his fist to throw another black cloud at me.

"GUARD!" I shouted and rolled to the side only to be attacked Lexaeus and his 'sword'. The sharp points on his weapon bounced off my shield and the black cloud encased him in depressing thoughts. I took a swipe at his feet, sending him falling on his back, smothered by the black cloak.

"Come on Meg! Give it up just let us kill you, it's best for everyone," Zexion cooed from far away. He was not known to fight when words could bring the person down even further. I kept my distance though, I did not know what chemicals or untested experiments he had hidden under his cloak.

Lexaeus got to his feet again, having recovered from his attack by the cloud, the anger rushed into his face faster than his attack. He leapt high into the air raising his sword to smash in my skull. When he was only a few feet higher than me I twisted right and jumped off the edge.

I landed several feet down on another set of stairs. I heard Lexaeus roar when he realized I was gone. He raced to the edge and leapt down after me. I ran to the edge of these stairs and threw myself into the darkness below. I kept going, Lexaeus always just one floor above me, not sure which way I had disappeared in the labyrinth of stairs.

"Nice try, Meg." Zexion was suddenly in front of me and I was trapped in his black fog, my legs and arms unable to move. "You know, I think I will like it a lot better when you are no longer around. Axel has sure gone weird with you running about."

"Yeah," Lexaeus dropped to our level with a heavy 'thud'. "He was going to help us overthrow the Organization so he could get his friend back."

"What did you say to him Meg?" Zexion had stepped closure, I could see his hands fumbling inside his cloak for something, probably poison. "What did you promise him with that would make him change his mind so swiftly?"

"TELL US!" Lexaeus shook me severely, his hands bruising my arms and shaking my head enough to make my vision blurry. He hit me in the back with this sword.

The water came rushing onto the beach so rhythmically and relaxing I never wanted to leave. The sky was calm and the sand felt warm beneath my shoes. Axel stood next to me explaining the different combinations of cards and how they would react together. He told me about every member of the organization in order and how he had hated his first years here, lost and alone with no memories of his life before.

He glanced nervously at the ghostly images of Nessa and Rachel staring across the water. They had not moved once since we arrived, not even their chests rose or fell with breathing.

"Then, there was Roxas."

"Was Roxas?" I asked. His face became curiously sad.

"He left. He said he had some errand to do that involved Sora, the Key Bearer, and we never saw him again. I tried to stop him from leaving, but he went anyway. I'm getting him back though. The guys from the basement and I have a plan."

"Open up!" Zexion's hand was pushing my cheeks together, forcing my lips apart but I would not budge. Lexaeus came around next to him and pinched my nose. I held my breath as long as I could, not daring to open them. The flask of whatever Zexion was going to force down me smelled awful, like the darkness on Rachel when she was possessed.

My lungs ached from the lack of air and I couldn't hold it any more. I opened my lips just a crack but Zexion's flask was at my lips pouring the disgusting liquid down my throat. I choked and spit it back out but it tore down my throat with a hot malice and one goal.

"MEGGAN!" I became very heavy, feeling the darkness at the far stretches of my mind taking over. I wanted to float into that oblivion and never have to worry about another problem.

Only faintly did I feel myself collapse on the floor, my vision became worse and worse. Fire streaked through my line of vision, only briefly warming my skin before I sank back into the darkness clouding my mind. Someone picked my head off the hard ground and was cradling me in their lap.

"MEGGAN!" their voice was too far off I couldn't connect it. My eyes tried to focus on the red swimming before my eyes but they would not focus. There was a soft touch on my lips and I was nothing.


End file.
